Research priorities in international agricultural development as perceived by United States landgrant university faculty engaged in international development activities: A Delphi study

The purpose of this study was to identify, categorize, and prioritize research needs in international agricultural development over the next ten years as perceived by U.S. landgrant university faculty engaged in international development activities. A three round Delphi technique was used to generate responses and achieve consensus from selected experts in international agricultural research developmental activities from 22 randomly selected landgrant universities. The Deans of Colleges of Agriculture in each participating university were requested to nominate three faculty he/she considered experts in the area of international agriculture as possible participants. Selection by Deans was based on experts having a full time appointment in agriculture with some experience in international agricultural developmental activities. The experts (participants) were also expected to have a rank of professor, associate professor, or assistant professor or be employed as researchers in the field of international agricultural development. In Round 1, experts were requested to suggest topical issues that needed to be researched or investigated in international agriculture during the next ten years. In Round 2, the same experts were requested to rate the importance of topics identified during Round 1. In Round 3, the experts were requested to compare their ratings to group ratings and reevaluate the importance of the topics. Descriptive statistics (mean, and standard deviations) were used to analyze the responses. An analysis of variance test was used to determine differences in round two and round 3 mean ratings. Major findings revealed both differences and similarities in research priority between the expert participants and major international development agencies (FAO, World Bank, and USAID). The findings also revealed that the categories regarded as being most important to research were literacy and education, international trade and marketing, health and nutrition, sustainable agricultural practices, management/decision making, and crop/fiber production