Integrating participatory elements into conventional research projects: measuring the costs and benefits

Until recently, participatory and conventional approaches to agricultural research have been regarded as more or less antagonistic. This article presents evidence from three sub-projects of a Thai–Vietnamese–German collaborative research programme on ‘Sustainable Land Use and Rural Development in Mountainous Regions of Southeast Asia’, in which participatory elements were successfully integrated into conventional agricultural research as add-on activities. In all three sub-projects the costs of studying local knowledge or enhancing farmers' experimentation consisted of additional local personnel, opportunity costs of participating farmers' time, and travel costs. However, these participatory elements of the research projects constituted only a small fraction of the total costs. It may be concluded that conventional agricultural research can be complemented by participatory components in a cost-effective way, while producing meaningful benefits in terms of creating synergies by blending scientific and local knowledge, scaling up micro-level data, and highlighting farmers' constraints affecting technology adoption.     

The lost 1990s? Personal reflections on a history of participatory technology development

This article traces a history of agricultural participatory research, largely from the author's personal experience. Participatory research in the 1970s was mostly led by disciplinary scientists, and characterised by innovative activities and open academic debate, with some recognition that policy and development practice was a political process. The 1980s saw a shift to learning from past experience, and a participatory mainstream developed, seeking methods for scaling up. Meanwhile, others sought to understand and influence policy and institutional change in their political and cultural contexts, and to keep open the academic debates. The author considers the 1990s as ‘lost years’, during which mainstream participatory practitioners became inward-looking development generalists, not so interested in learning from others outside their paradigm. The late 2000s provide a chance to re-recognise the political and cultural embeddedness of science and technology; re-introduce strong, widely based disciplines; and learn from past activities that resulted in positive development outcomes (planned or unplanned).     

Appraisal of methods to evaluate farmer field schools

The need to increase agricultural sustainability has induced the government of India to promote the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM). An evaluation of cotton-based conventional and IPM farming systems was conducted in India (2002–2004). The farmers managing the IPM farms had participated in discovery-based ecological training, namely Farmer Field Schools (FFS). The evaluation included five impact areas: (1) the ecological footprint and (2) occupational hazard of cotton production; and the effects of IPM adoption on (3) labour allocation; (4) management practices; and (5) livelihoods. The analysis showed that a mix of approaches increased the depth and the relevance of the findings. Participatory and conventional methods were complementary. The study also revealed different impacts on the livelihoods of women and men, and wealthy and poor farmers, and demonstrated that the value of the experience can be captured also in terms of the farmers' own frames of reference. The evaluation process consumed considerable resources, indicating that proper budgetary allocations need to be made.     

Community-managed rice banks: lessons from Laos

Rice banks are increasingly used in South-East Asia as a means of addressing seasonal food crises facing poor communities. Despite general agreement about the effectiveness of community-managed rice banks in improving food security, there has been almost no research into their effectiveness in reaching the poorest, or the prospects of sustainability linked to regular repayments of rice. Concern Laos sought to answer these questions through community mobilisation, forming rules and regulations to encourage the participation of the poorest, developing simple tools and procedures in line with existing community capacity, and building greater community capacity. Other challenges remain, such as changing the prevailing ‘relief’ mentality, ensuring women's participation, and establishing regular savings schemes, in order to enhance the effectiveness and sustainability of the rice banks.     

Animals in natural interaction with soil,plants, and people in Asia

This article discusses the role of animals in small-scale crop/animal systems in Asia. It explains how the animals are generally multipurpose, rather than single or dual purpose, with security also being an important element. Farmers can be stimulated to produce more meat and milk when other forms of security such as banks are considered equally reliable. Multiculture is the predominant system of plant production in the region, with leguminous crops complementing non-leguminous crops. This also has benefits for soils. Multicultural systems are labour-intensive, but in a context in which labour supply is not a problem, labour-saving devices provide no solution. Animals in agroforestry are discussed in detail, with an emphasis placed on animals grazing under coconut and oil-palm plantations. Asian animal scientists should spend more time exploring the roles of multiculture and animals in agroforestry.     

Juxtaposing handloom weaving and modernity: building theory through praxis

This article investigates the interaction between the processes of building development theory and development practice, arguing that theory must start with practice – and should not be top–down, starting with the ‘outside gaze’ of a supposedly detached academic or policy maker. The questions posed point to critiques of mainstream development narratives and notions of innovation through the diffusion of new technologies. The authors suggest that the assumptions embedded in mainstream development processes lead to unequal access to global and local markets, and that when they are imposed from the outside without a real understanding of the context, the development project is bound to fail. Parameters for assessing and evaluating outcomes also need to be based upon a close understanding of context – and this often comes through active involvement within it and not through being ‘detached’ and outside it. The assumption that an outside gaze is ‘objective’ is based in an implicitly colonial discourse, while building theory by being involved in the practice produces better methodologies for action and development.     

Engaging elite support for the poorest? BRAC's Targeted Ultra Poor programme for rural women in Bangladesh

This article draws preliminary lessons from the experience of engaging village elites in support of a BRAC programme for ultra-poor women in rural Bangladesh. It describes the origins, aims, and operation of this programme, which provides comprehensive livelihood support and productive assets to the extreme poor. Based on field research in the rural north-west, the article examines the conditions under which elites can support interventions for the ultra-poor, and the risks and benefits of such engagement. It describes the impact of committees mandated to support ultra-poor programme participants, and attempts to understand the somewhat paradoxical success of this intervention. Conclusions and lessons from the experience involve revisiting assumptions that dominate scholarship and programmes relating to the politics of poverty in rural Bangladesh.     

Perceptions and practices of farmer empowerment in Tanzania

The purpose of this article is to review the implementation of various empowerment interventions in Tanzania. Data for the review are based on field visits to programmes/projects/organisations involved in implementing empowerment interventions in various regions of the country. These visits involved key-informant interviews, sample surveys, and focus-group discussions with farmers. The review highlights the perceptions of empowerment at the levels of project staff and practitioners/beneficiaries, as well as the approaches used by various organisations and projects in implementing empowerment activities. In addition the article discusses the factors perceived to lead to empowerment, as well as its consequences.     

Participation,education, and pluralism: towards a new extension ethic

The concern driving current debate on agricultural extension is increasingly that of how to help farmers learn how to deal with the complex world around them responsibly and profitably, in such a way that the extension worker is ancillary. This article seeks to deconstruct and provide a more reasoned assessment of agricultural extension services through a reflection on development paradigms, adult education, individual empowerment, and institutional pluralism. By calling into question the underlying ethical dimensions of agricultural extension, it is possible to develop an alternative paradigm and thereby generate new insights into it. The article concludes that the raison d'être of agricultural extension today must be to create an ethical basis which ensures that extension practices are more inclusive and thus responsive to the needs of farmers and other rural populations, integrating individual expectations into the wider socio-economic, cultural, political, and geographical environment.     

Developing small production and marketing enterprises: mushroom contract farming in Bangladesh

This article presents a case study of an activity implemented under the FAO component of the Local Partnerships for Urban Poverty Alleviation Project, funded by UNDP in Bangladesh. In Mymensingh city the project is linking poor urban dwellers with a niche market for oyster mushroom. This small enterprise activity appears to be sustainable, in that it develops agricultural production to cater for the specific demand of an existing small marketing enterprise. As long as the trader finds a market for his mushroom, he has an incentive to collaborate with the project beneficiaries who supply the produce. This model is thus an example of mutual benefit between extremely small landholders and a trader through the catalytic effect of a development project.     

Strategies for out-scaling participatory research approaches for sustaining agricultural research impacts

The popularity of participatory research approaches is largely driven by the expected benefits from bridging the gap between formal agricultural science institutions and local farm communities, making agricultural research more relevant and effective. There is, however, no certainty that this approach, which has been mainly project-based, will succeed in transforming agricultural research in developing countries towards more client-responsive, impact-oriented institutions. Research managers must consider appropriate strategies for such an institutional transformation, including: (1) careful planning of social processes and interactions among different players, and documenting how that might have brought about success or failure; (2) clear objectives, which influence the participation methods used; (3) clear impact pathway and impact hypotheses at the outset, specifying expected outputs, outcomes, impacts, and beneficiaries; (4) willingness to adopt institutional learning, where existing culture and practices can be changed; and (5) long-term funding commitment to sustain the learning and change process.     

Adult learning and literacy learning for livelihoods: some international perspectives

Reflecting contemporary interest in developing new adult literacy learning programmes based on ‘literacy for livelihoods’, this article examines some case studies from New Zealand, Bangladesh, and Egypt, illustrating literacy being used in livelihoods, and relates these to the kind of literacy being taught in many adult literacy programmes today. It argues that people often change their livelihoods, and that each livelihood has literacy practices embedded within it. The authors suggest that the use of these literacy practices embedded within the livelihood activities might be a better starting point for adult literacy learning than a school-based textbook.     

No more adoption rates! Looking for empowerment in agricultural development programmes

The debate on empowerment encompasses an older discourse about the intrinsic value of empowerment, and a newer discourse about the instrumental benefits of empowerment; the concept of agency is useful in understanding this distinction. In agricultural development, empowerment efforts are often instrumentalist, viewed as an advanced form of participation that will improve project effectiveness, with adoption rates that promote compliance rather than intrinsic empowerment. Nevertheless, it is possible for projects to enhance the means for – and facilitate the process of – intrinsic empowerment. With regard to process, research and extension can make use of a constructivist rather than the behaviourist approach to support changes in knowledge, behaviour, and social relationships. In assessing empowerment, both developers and ‘developees’ need to look for evidence that people are taking control of their lives. Case studies – such as those used by the Indonesian Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Programme – will help to capture context and chronology, with unplanned behaviours being particularly useful indicators.     

Impact assessment of farmer institutional development and agricultural change: Soroti district,Uganda

This article is based on participatory development research conducted in Soroti district of Uganda with the aim of assessing the impact of agricultural development among poor farmers. The central argument is that a combination of farmer empowerment and innovation through experiential learning in farmer field school (FFS) groups, changes in the opportunity structure through transformation of local government staff, establishment of new farmer-governed local institutions, and emergence of a private service provider has been successful in reducing rural poverty. Based on an empirical study of successful adaptation and spread of pro-poor technologies, the study assesses the well-being impact of agricultural technology development in Soroti district. The study concludes that market-based spread of pro-poor agricultural technologies requires an institutional setting that combines farmer empowerment with an enabling policy environment.     

Operationalising participatory research and gender analysis: new research and assessment approaches

Participatory research approaches are increasingly popular with scientists working for poverty alleviation, sustainable rural development, and social change. This introduction offers an overview of the special issue of Development in Practice on the theme of ‘operationalising participatory research and gender analysis’. The purpose of this special issue is to add value to the discussion of methodological, practical, philosophical, political, and institutional issues involved in using gender-sensitive participatory methods. Drawing on 16 articles, we place some of the main issues, empirical experiences, and debates in participatory research and participatory technology development in the context of implementation, evaluation, and institutionalisation of participatory research and evaluation approaches.     

Participatory technology development in agricultural mechanisation in Nepal: how it happened and lessons learned

International Wheat and Maize Improvement Center (CIMMYT) projects on new resource-conservation technologies (RCTs) in the Indo-Gangetic Plains of Nepal aimed to strengthen equity of access, poverty reduction, and gender orientation in current rural mechanisation processes – more specifically, to promote machine-based resource conservation and drudgery-reduction technologies among smallholder farmers. These projects, together with other projects and other actors, gave rise to an informal ‘coalition’ project, which used participatory technology development (PTD) approaches, where farmers, engineers, scientists, and other partners worked towards equitable access to new RCTs. This experience showed that PTD projects need to be flexible, making use of learning and change approaches. Once successful adoption is occurring, then what? Such projects need to ensure that everyone is benefiting in terms of social inclusion and equity; this might necessitate new unforeseen work.     

Indigenous floating cultivation: a sustainable agricultural practice in the wetlands of Bangladesh

Floating-bed cultivation has proved a successful means to produce agricultural crops in various wetland areas of the world. In freshwater lakes and wetlands, vegetables, flowers, and seedlings are grown in Bangladesh using this floating cultivation technique, without any additional irrigation or chemical fertiliser. No detailed study of this indigenous cultivation technique has been published to date, although the laboratory method, hydroponics, is well documented in the professional literature. Our study is focused on the nature and characteristics of the Bangladeshi system, where local farmers have demonstrated the potential for the sustainable use of such common-property local water resources. We seek to establish a reference point for further research into this technique for its possible refinement and an assessment of its suitability for replication.     

NGOs,corporate social responsibility,and social accountability: Inditex vs. Clean Clothes

Markets and businesses are undergoing major changes as globalisation deepens. Pressure from diverse social groups, both environmental and economic, is changing the operating environment. Many corporations are interested in devising social-responsibility strategies, both as a response to outside pressures and in their own interests. Against this background, this article considers the case of Inditex, a company based in Galicia, and the ‘harassment’ to which it was subjected by Setem, the Spanish chapter of the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC). Reviewing Setem's claims leads to a better understanding of the repercussions for social systems that are now increasingly informed by external actors. The authors argue that both corporations and non-government organisations must account for the social impact of their activities.