ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines a vision of the health and agricultural research systems that must be completed, or put in place, in order to generate the new knowledge and the new technology necessary to meet the demands for food security and health maintenance in the early decades of the twenty-first century. Two perspectives emerged from the consultation and the conference. One is that the battle to achieve sustainable growth in agricultural production must be fought out along a broad multi-disciplinary front. Poverty undermines health and degrades the environment. A second perspective is the central role of decisions by the family and the community and in achieving growth of agricultural production, enhancement of the resource base, and improvements in health. In the early post-war development literature peasant producers had been viewed as obstacles to agricultural development. They were viewed as bound by custom and tradition and resistant to change.
