I'll chip in here, if that's okay, and reflect on my experience of working for much of the last 10 years in the U.K., where there were a number of interdisciplinary programs designed to link industry and academics and a range of stakeholders on agricultural themes. There was the rural economy and land-use program and the ecosystem service and poverty alleviation program, just to name two that represented major cross-departmental initiatives that I think resulted in some significant translation of research ideas into on-the-ground, land-use change programs or new technologies. They were indeed taken up by farmers, because the initial partners in these programs included not only academics and researchers but industry groups and farm groups. So I think there are some good models from the U.K. that do exactly that.
On October 27th, 2011. See this statement in context.