Farmer First Revisited

1

• Farmer First Revisited
• 12 14 December 2007
• at the Institute of Development Studies,
  Brighton, UK
• Presentation, Theme 1a, Farmer Participatory
  Research and Adaptive Management
• Discussant Adrienne Martin, Natural Resources
  Institute

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Theme 1. Agricultural Innovation Systems
putting farmers first?

• A. FARMER PARTICIPATORY RESEARCH AND
  ADAPTIVE MANAGEMENT
• Experiences of participatory research and
  technology development in a range of settings
  methods, practices and politics.

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Papers

• Cecilia Turin (National Agricultural University,
  La Molina, Peru) Advocacy coalitions to build
  participatory processes in the Peruvian
  Altiplano increasing human capacities to adapt
  to changes
• Ravi Prabhu et al (CIFOR) - Action research with
  local forest users and managers Lessons from
  CIFORs research on Adaptive Collaborative
  Management
• Yan Zhaoli (ICIMOD) Co- management of rangeland
  resources in Hindu Kush - Himalayan region
  involving farmers in the policy process
• Todd Crane (Wageningen) - If we put farmers
  first, where do the pastoralists go? Political
  ecology and participation in central Mali.
• Edward Chuma and Jürgen Hagmann (PICOTEAM) -
  Start anywhere follow everywhere a systemic
  journey over 17 years in Africa, Asia and Latin
  America to find the triggers for making
  participation and innovation/extension systems
  work.
• Jean Claude Rubyogo Louise Sperling (CIAT)
  Developing seed systems with and for the poor and
  marginalised case of beans in east, central and
  southern Africa.
• Rob Tripp (ODI) Crop management innovation and
  the economics of attention.
• Norman Uphoff (CIIFOD) Farmer innovations in
  the system of rice intensification (SRI)

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Main themes 1

• Four papers (Turin, Prabhu, Zhaoli, Crane)
  address participation among key actors for
  natural resource management, - issues of
  governance, conflict, social organisation,
  equity, power relations, cultural differences.
• emphasise the importance of analysing and
  strengthening social, cultural, political and
  human capital, noting that these are interlinked
  with other forms of capital.
• see this is essential for empowerment
• found that capacity strengthening for
  participatory action research was needed, e.g.
  training for transformation increased confidence
  and engagement
• stress the importance of linkages and
  communication and access to information.

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2

• Action research with forest dependent communities
  to improve livelihoods, equity and forest
  systems, used the approach of Adaptive
  Collaborative Management (ACM), involving
  planning, action, learning, innovation cycles and
  self monitoring and joint reflection.
• Conflict and power differences were addressed
  through social learning, governance innovations
  and active facilitation. BUT challenging. ACM
  approaches created space for negotiation and
  enhanced voice.
• Equity assessment process - cross checked
  participation and community forestry benefits
  against wealth and diversity ranking made
  visible extent to which equity objectives were
  matched by decisions and actions

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3

• Two papers address participation specifically in
  relation to pastoralist groups and management of
  rangeland resources (Zhaoli, Crane).
• Enabling pastoralists voices to be heard -
  promoting political and legal environment for
  pastoralists to participate in decision making
  and influence policy e.g. researchers and farmers
  convinced government authorities to set up trials
  on controlled burning
• Conflicts between stakeholders addressed through
  processes of community regulation (pasture
  management sub committees). Visual model built to
  facilitate discussion of boundaries and agreed
  regulations.
• Participatory approaches and capacity building
  enabled farmers and herders to address management
  problems and develop social networks,
  institutions and problem solving skills to
  address conflict over NRM
• Importance of cultural analysis and sensitivity
  to local social processes to understand divergent
  visions of competing ethnic groups (farmers and
  herders) and different scales of operation and
  integrate these into participatory technology
  innovation.

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4

• Exploring participatory approaches in research,
  extension and natural resource management -
  strengthening the demand side (Chuma/Hagmann).
• challenge to make research and extension initiate
  sustain the innovation development process as
  part of a broader stakeholder platform for
  service delivery.
• analysed and identified systemic blockages,
  encouraged innovation
• New roles and competences for research and
  extension, through coaching and mentoring and use
  of a range of dissemination methods and tools

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5

• Support to informal seed systems in the absence
  of commercial seed sector linking with sources
  of improved varieties, information and quality
  seed. (Rubyogo)
• Long standing work on bean variety development
  through participatory plant breeding with end
  users, but lack of farmer access and awareness.
• Decentralised seed systems identified by farmers
  as most appropriate way to access improved
  varieties.
• Integration of formal and informal seed systems
  to speed up access to new preferred varieties
• Multisectoral approach - extension agents, NGOs,
  government services, traders, seed companies,
  farmers organisations, national seed services.
• Farmer training and training of trainers
• Local seed production and farmer to farmer or
  local trader dissemination
• Promotion through different media and field days

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6

• The economics of attention crop management
  research makes many competing and disconnected
  demands on farmers attention a scarce resource
  (Tripp)
• Low external input technology - poorer
  subsistence oriented households, less likely to
  participate or take up
• Re-examination of strategies promoting farmer
  centred technology development is needed.
• More time efficient methods for engaging in
  technology generation and presenting information
  to farmers.
• Need for mechanisms to allow farmers more
  efficient access to information and improve
  ability to share knowledge and sustainable
  institutions that support these

10
7

• System of rice intensification - yield increases
  through farmers changing their management
  practices, rather than increasing inputs
  producing more from less. (Uphoff)
• Farmer innovations many new methods for raising
  seedlings, marking out fields for transplanting,
  direct seeding, tillage and weed control.
• Diversity and ingenuity. Farmers can and will
  innovate if the production systems and options
  are presented to them not as a final finished
  product for adoption (or turning down) but rather
  as an opportunity, for which thought and
  innovation on their part are expected.
• NGOs and farmers worked on adapting system to
  dryland and to other crops and for
  diversification - complex transformations of
  farming systems under influence of new ideas.
• paternalism of any sort will be a barrier to
  realising the full extent of the opportunities
  that an understanding of SRI presents.

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New methods or dimensions

• Methods build on earlier approaches, but have
  important new dimensions
• Importance attached to analysis and strengthening
  of social, human, cultural and political capital
• Capacity strengthening as an enabler of
  participatory engagement and empowerment
• Greater engagement with issues of power and
  conflict
• Focus on time requirements and efficiency of
  approaches in participatory technology
  development and knowledge access
• Clearer recognition of innovation as a process
  and the challenges of creating a broader
  stakeholder platform

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Questions for discussion

• Are minimum levels of social and human capital a
  precondition for participatory action research ?
• How can these best be strengthened?
• What are the mechanisms for sharing learning and
  promoting these processes over a wider area?
• How far should participatory research /adaptive
  management engage with issues of power and
  conflict?
• How can research and extension be supported in
  the innovation development process as part of a
  broader stakeholder platform for service
  delivery?
• What strategies could improve the efficiency of
  approaches in participatory technology
  development and farmers access to knowledge?
• What lessons on farmer innovation can be drawn
  from the SRI experience to inform future
  practice?