Research Consumption for Industrial Development : The Tanzania’s Flower Industry

This study investigates the link between research findings dissemination and industrial development with a focus on floriculture in Tanzania's northern regions of Arusha and Kilimanjaro. While the key players in flower business are mainly large multinational companies who interested in keeping trade secrets to ensure their business survival and remain competitive in the market. On the other hand, the local research system consists mostly of public institutions, whose obligated to disseminate research findings that would help improve the livelihoods of the general populace. The public research system, therefore, considers such information, knowledge and technologies as public goods. This different approach in information, knowledge sharing and utilization pose a greater challenge on interaction and sharing of knowledge and information between the industry and the public research institutions. Moreover, the slow, bureaucratic procedures in responding to farmers' urgent requests worsen interaction between them. It was revealed that farmers' needs, such as, disease outbreaks are usually urgent and require prompt solutions. The delays from local research institutes pushed farmers to seek solutions from international research establishments. More often, it was observed research priorities in public institutes are set by the academic community with little or no participation of farmers in the field. This tendency has led to research institutions being isolated from the immediate needs of society. This approach is often motivated by the assumption that scientists or researchers know what the farmers want, hence research often ignores farmers' inputs, hence resulting in farmers need not adequately addressed on time. The study concludes that there is a need for more focused research active involvement of farmers in setting research priorities and direct dissemination of findings in a language understood by them