Many people and organisations concerned with agricultural research and development are
still unaware of the creation of a Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), or have
only a vague idea what it might be. In this article, a member of a German-based
nongovernmental organisation (NGO) that promotes ecologically-oriented agriculture
examines the process of building the GFAR and describes the response of NGOs. The
GFAR initiative is an attempt to open up agricultural research to a wider group of
stakeholders, including NGOs and farmer organisations, and to facilitate the formation of
research partnerships for development. A major thrust of the initiative is to strengthen
national agricultural research systems ¿ not just the formal research institutes ¿ and to link
them into an international research framework