th 105 FoCARS Foundation Course For Agricultural Research Service Digital Repository of Course Materials • Stakeholder analysis • Gender Issues in Agricultural • Technology Assessment • Tech Forecasting -I • Technology Forecasting -II • Technology Diffusion in Agriculture Sector • On–Farm Research and Constraint Analysis in Technology Adoption • ITK and its Relevance for Sustainability • Reforming the Agricultural Extension System in India • Modernizing National Agricultural Extension Systems: • A Practical Guide for Policy-Makers of Developing Countries • Participatory Technology Development
Transcript
th105 FoCARSFoundation Course For Agricultural Research Service
Digital Repository of Course Materials
• Stakeholder analysis
• Gender Issues in Agricultural
• Technology Assessment
• Tech Forecasting -I
• Technology Forecasting -II
• Technology Diffusion in Agriculture Sector
• On–Farm Research and Constraint Analysis in Technology Adoption
• ITK and its Relevance for Sustainability
• Reforming the Agricultural Extension System in India
• Modernizing National Agricultural Extension Systems:
• A Practical Guide for Policy-Makers of Developing Countries
• Participatory Technology Development
Course Coordinators K. Kareemulla and S. Ravichandran
Support Team P. Krishnan and P. Namdev
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PARTICIPATORY TECHNOLOGY
DEVELOPMENT
Bharat S. Sontakki1
Prologue
In the coming years, agricultural research in India has to address a host of
new challenges like global competitiveness, sustainability, environmental
conservation, social equity, etc. The focus then will be on market driven
research with significant emphasis on stakeholder interests. This calls for a
gradual shift in our approaches to agricultural research in general and
agricultural technology development and diffusion in particular. We have
to gradually shift our approach from the conventional subject specific
research to multidisciplinary, collaborative and PTD. It is, therefore,
necessary to understand and appreciate the issues related to participation
of all the stakeholders of agricultural research to develop and diffuse need
based and appropriate technologies.
Stakeholders in agricultural research
The primary stakeholders of agricultural research are the farmers. Besides,
a host of other interest groups have their own stakes in agricultural
research. The following figure illustrates the possible stakeholder groups
in agricultural research process.
1 Principal Scientist & Head, XSM Division, NAARM
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Weaknesses in the present approaches to agricultural research and
extension
The conventional approach to agricultural research and extension has often
been criticized for its top-down nature. This approach has led to the
technology recommendations that are too general ignoring the multiple
farming situations within a farming situation. Participatory approaches
offer readymade solutions to this problem. Hence, of late there is growing
awareness globally on the use of participatory approaches in agricultural
research and development.
Research, technology development and transfer
The main objective of agricultural research is to solve the farm and
farming related problems of farmers by developing appropriate
technologies. Research management primarily involves
perception/identification and articulation of the research problem, project
prioritization, selection and resource allocation, planning of research
activities, monitoring and review of the project, and utilization of research
results. The technology development and transfer processes form a
continuum on which our research and extension activities are carried out
(figure 2).
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Figure 2. Continuum of agricultural research – technology
development, transfer and adoption
Participatory approaches in agricultural research and extension
This approach combines the advantages of several established
methodologies that ensure involvement of farmers in the definition of a
research agenda, conduct of research, evaluation of results and the
dissemination of findings (Farrington as cited by Mettrick, 1993).
Ensuring the participation of users in the agricultural technology
development process is a strategic research issue. It is also of vital
importance to achieve impact that benefits poor people. User participation
in agricultural research, technology development and transfer processes
enables development of appropriate and demand driven technologies that
readily fit into the agro-climatic and socioeconomic conditions of farmers.
In brief, stakeholder participation in technology development and transfer
is the key to meet the future challenges of Indian agriculture. As a
corollary, the research projects developed in participatory mode,
incorporating the interests of various stakeholders, would be more
appropriate in the days to come.
Evolution of participatory approaches
Over the past couple of decades or so, substantial work has been done to
introduce a user perspective in to the formal agricultural research in
general and adaptive research in particular. A broad representation of
specific documented efforts in this direction is listed in Table 1.
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Table 1. Evolution of participatory approaches in agricultural
research
FSR Farming System Research (Mellor, 1966; Collison, 1972;
Norman, 1974)
ITK Indigenous Technical Knowledge (IDS, 1979; Brokesha et al.
1980)
OFT On-farm Trials (Tripp, 1982)
FBTF Farmer Back to Farmer (Rhodes and Booth, 1982)
FFL Farmer First and Last (Chambers and Gildyal, 1985)
FPR Farmers PTD (Farrington and Martin, 1988)
OFCOR On Farm Client Oriented Research (Merill-Sands and
Kaimowitz, 1990)
IBA Interactive Bottom-up Approach (Bunders et al. 1990)
RRA Rapid Rural Appraisal (IIED, 1991)
PRA Participatory Rural Appraisal (IIED, 1991)
PTD Participatory Technology Development (Reintjes et al. 1992)
The above are a few documented and published approaches in PTD. In
addition, a wide diversity of undocumented efforts in the field practices
also exists in developing countries. The list is growing as a result of
increasing farmer involvement in problem identification and technology
testing and, ultimately, the support of farmers in agricultural research.
Four distinct approaches to PTD could be identified based on the above
documented efforts. They are:
The first approach (e.g. FSR, ITK, and FFL) evolves around
understanding farming systems. This is a move away from looking
only at commodity crops to a more holistic perspective. This
approach shows that farming systems are not static but dynamic.
The second approach (e.g. OFT, FBTF, and FFL) emulates the
physical conditions of farmers in on-farm research. This approach
addresses the fact that conditions in laboratories and research
stations are vastly different from actual field conditions.
The third approach (e.g. IBA, and OFCOR) revolves around the
emulation of the personal and physical conditions of farmers. This
is based on farmers‟ rationality; i.e. farmers‟ decisions and
practices are not only in response to physical factors but are also
due to socio-economic factors.
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The fourth approach combines analytical tools geared toward
action. FPR, PRA, and PTD involve methodologies that not only
combine the understanding of farmers‟ physical and personal
conditions but also provide the tools necessary for farmers to
participate in the research process.
A perusal of the above approaches reveals that the differences among
farmers have to be recognized and all the groups need to be integrated
including a gender perspective in agricultural research to make it truly
participatory.
Participatory approaches are constantly evolving. The three main reasons
for ever growing awareness of and appreciation for participatory
methodologies are:
The concept and practice of participation in agricultural research is
relatively new and certainly complex involving a wide diversity of
farming systems. There is also a considerable gap between theory
and practice. Many lessons have been learned and even more need
to be learned.
The diversity of context and corresponding institutional policy
environments requires constant analysis and application.
A prescribed methodology does not exist. There is no fixed recipe
or a model for PTD. This may be seen as a complication of
participation but, more appropriately, it is the essence and strength
of participation. Hence a “tool box approach” to research is
essential, wherein different approaches should not be looked at as
competitive to one another but as sources of a rich array of
research tools and procedures (Mettrick, 1993).
Participatory Technology Development (PTD)
PTD is a strategic action and a purposeful process by which scientists
sponsored technology is tested, suitably modified and refined by the
farmers in their fields leading to its, viability and acceptability by them in
their farming situations.
Goals of participatory approach in agricultural research
One goal of encouraging stakeholder participation in research and
technology development and transfer is to improve the functional
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efficiency of formal research (better technologies, more widely adopted,
more quickly adopted). Another objective is to empower the stakeholders,
especially the marginalized ones, on their own decision making so that
their research capacity to make effective demands on research and
extension organizations is strengthened. These goals are not mutually
exclusive; functional participation can be empowering and empowering
participation may lead to functional efficiency gains in technology
development. However, the two may imply different financial priorities
and time horizons; the quest for empowerment generally demands more
intensive participation over a longer time period than the quest for
functional efficiency gains in a particular research area. They may also
imply that different indicators for project monitoring should be adopted;
cost effectiveness is a key indicator for functional participation while
indicators of capacity are central for empowering participation (Farrington
and Nelson, 1997).
Key features of PTD
Client-based: The knowledge, needs, criteria, and references of
farmers are given importance in decisions regarding research
agenda, prioritization of problems for research, choice of
methodologies, and verification, validation, dissemination and
adoption of research results.
Decentralized research/technology development
Devolution of more responsibility to farmers for adaptive
testing
Accountability sharing
Focuses on farmer-led experimentation
Tests the relevance of farmers’ problem solving measures
Takes in to account the local resources
Is often based on indigenous technical knowledge and native
wisdom of farmers
Emphasizes use of low cost and locally available resources
Steps in PTD Process
To have a more meaningful and effective PTD process for suitable and
appropriate technology development so as to enable farmers to use and
implement the technologies in their fields, following steps are suggested.
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Step Activity
1. Getting started in
field
Building relationship/rapport
Preliminary situation analysis
Awareness mobilization
2. Understanding
Problems and
Potentials
Analyzing driving/restraining forces
Identifying scientific and local
knowledge of farmers
3. Looking for
thinking to try
Identifying priorities
Screening options, choosing selection
criteria
Developing „agreed‟ research agenda
4. Designing
Experiments
Review existing practice
Planning and designing experiments
Designing evaluations
Protocols
5. Trying out Implementation of farmer experiments
Measurement/observation of research
Developing structure of dissemination of
experiences
6. Evaluation of the
experiments
Analyzing the results
7. Sharing results with
others
Farmers extension-conduct of field
Field days/exchange
Communication of principles and results
of PTD Process
Training in skills and use of experimental
methods.
8. Sustaining the PTD
Process
Creation of favourable conditions for
continuing experiments
Developing self management capacity of
farmers
9. Scaling up/Phasing
out
Farmer consolidation
Gradual withdrawal of the organization
Dissemination to more farmers
Hence it may be said that PTD is the significant strategic action to make
agricultural technology viable and pro-farmers. The advantages accrued to
farmers from PTD can be told in more specific words as follows.
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Advantages to Farmers from PTD
Farmers produce their own technologies
- Appropriate to farm situations
- Based on problems experienced by farmers
Encourage community participation
Use local materials and local expertise
Technologies are cheap and flexible
These are culturally supportive
Reduce time lag in large scale adoption
More sustainable and productive
Within the resources and capability of farmers
These have options rather than fixed packages for production.
Comparison of PTD with other similar concepts
Here, comparison of PTD with other known concepts – Extension,
Demonstration and Farmers Managed Trials is also important. They are:
Extension
Farmers opinion is not considered important
Targets are fixed for technology dissemination
No attempt is made to empower the farmers to develop and use
technologies on their own
Demonstration
Only proved technologies are offered to farmers
Implementation alone is the activity left to farmers
Farmers Managed Trials
Technologies may succeed or fail
Only implementation of trials is left to farmers
All other factors are controlled by researchers
Similarly, comparison between Research Stations Vs. Farm Holdings and
Scientists‟ Research Vs. Farmers‟ Research provide a vivid picture how
PTD is different and important than other systems, as mentioned below:
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Research Stations Farm Holdings
∗ Resources
Abundant
Assured availability
Limited
Availability not assured
∗ Seed High quality Quality not certain
∗ Capital Not a constraint Limited factor
∗ Irrigation Under own control Mostly under control of
others
∗ Labour No limit Very much limited
∗ Price Not a critical factor High input cost
Low price for produce
∗ Technical Skills Always available Limited availability
Scientists’ Research Farmers’ Research
∗ Use more capital – intensive
equipment
∗ Limited equipment, use local
resources
∗ Long term perspective ∗ Short term perspective
∗ Complicated design and analysis ∗ Simple farmer-decided design
∗ Standard procedures
∗ Changing procedures, according
to adhoc needs
∗ Focus on single crop ∗ Integrated system
∗ Oriented to general consumer
preferences and market
∗ Local preferences and markets
∗ Controlled variables (introduces
practices which farmers do not
follow)
∗ Follow farmers‟ management
practices
∗ Artificial situation ∗ Real life situation
Participation typology
In his summary of the findings of the ISNAR study, Biggs (1989)
identifies the following four distinct types of farmer participation in
agricultural research:
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Contractual participation: Scientists contract with farmers to
provide land or services. In this approach the farmer‟s role is
passive and participation is not explicit. Scientists manage research
themselves so as to maintain tight control over the variables.
Multilocation testing of technology is a good example of contract
participation. Although this mode cannot by itself be considered as
client-oriented research, it can form an important component of
such efforts. E.g. On-farm Trials.
Consultative participation: Scientists consult farmers about their
problems and then develop solutions. This type of participation is
akin to „doctor-patient‟ relationship. Researchers use formal and
informal surveys to define farming systems and diagnose priority
problems. Then they design experiments to test various solutions or
to better understand identified problems. The emphasis is on
adapting technology to the socioeconomic as well as the agro-
