To do research that can:

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What are your goals as researchers on the JIRCAS
project in the Upper Mekong Basin?

• To do research that can
• produce high quality research?
• reduce erosion into ponds?
• increase runoff into ponds?
• improve the livelihoods of poorer farmers
  (increase production, increase income, reduce
  labour inputs)?

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How can you achieve these goals?

• On-Station Research?

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Rice Nursery Evaluation on-station
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• On-Station Research has produced many useful
  technologies which have been adopted in the
  lowlands (rice varieties, fertiliser management,
  pest control)
• On-station research has not produced many
  technologies that have been widely adopted in the
  uplands
• Why?

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• It was thought that the poor adoption of
  technologies in the uplands was because the
  environmental conditions on stations were much
  better than on farms
• So, researchers started conducting some trials on
  farmers fields

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How can you achieve these goals?

• On-Station Research?

On-Farm Research?
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• Simply renting farmers fields for running trials
  did not result in any better adoption.
• Technologies demonstrated on model farms have
  not been adopted by other farmers
• Why?

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• It was thought that poor adoption was because we
  did not understand all the complex conditions on
  farms.
• So researchers conducted detailed studies of the
  farming systems to try to understand what
  technologies might work

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How can you achieve these goals?

• On-Station Research?

On-Farm Research?
Farming Systems Research?
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• Farming systems research helped us understand
  upland farming systems better, but adoption of
  technologies offered to farmers was still
  limited.
• Why?

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• We now believe that the reasons for poor adoption
  are that
• upland farming systems are highly variable.
  There are big differences in resources, problems
  and opportunities between individual farmers.
  No single technology will work everywhere

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• We now believe that the reasons for poor adoption
  are that
• we can never fully understand farmers problems
  and opportunities as well as they do.
• farmers are the experts in these farming systems.
  Only they can decide which technologies are
  likely to be most suitable for their farms, their
  resources and their problems

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How can you achieve these goals?

• On-Station Research?

On-Farm Research?
Farming Systems Research?
Participatory Research?
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In the rest if this course, we will talk about

• Some of the approaches you can use in
  participatory research
• Some of the tools that will help you quantify
  farmers needs, preferences and impacts

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