Defoer, T. and A. Budelman (Eds) 2000. Managing Soil Fertility in The Tropics: A Resource Guide for Participatory Learning and Action Research.. Royal Tropical Institute (KIT) Institute in collaboration with IIED, IER, FAO and CTA.

Pound, B., S. Snapp, C. McDougall and A. Braun (Eds). 2003. Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods: Uniting Science and Participation. Earthscan/IDRC.Management of local resources has a greater chance of a sustainable outcome when there is partnership between local people and external agencies, and agendas relevant to their aspirations and circumstances. Managing Natural Resources for Sustainable Livelihoods analyses and extends this premise to show unequivocally that the process of research for improving natural resource management must incorporate participatory and user-focused approaches, leading to development based on the needs and knowledge of local resource users.Drawing on extensive and highly relevant case studies, this book presents innovative approaches for establishing and sustaining participation and collective decision-making, good practice for research, and challenges for future developments. It covers a wide range of natural resources – including forests and soils, and water and management units such as watersheds and common property areas and provides practical lessons from analysis and meta-analysis of cases from Asia, Africa and Latin America. It offers insights on how to make research participatory while maintaining rigour and high-quality biological science, different forms of participation, and ways to scale up and extend participatory approaches and successful initiatives.This book will be invaluable for those professionally involved in natural resource management for sustainable development, and an essential resource for teachers and students of both the biophysical and social science aspects of natural resource management.

Gündel, S. 1998. Innovación, desarrollo y difusión participativas: Adopción y adaptación de leguminosas introducidas en el sistema agrícola tradicional de rozatumba y quema en Yucatán, México. Begleitprogramm Tropenökologie, GTZ, Eschborn, Germany.

Verma, R. 2001. Gender, land and livelihoods in East Africa: Through Farmers' Eyes. IDRC. ISBN 0-88936-929-1 280 pp.In rural Africa and the Middle East, many ecosystems are on the verge of collapse. The interplay of social, ecological, and political-economic forces has compromised the ability of farmers to sustain their precious soil. As a result, farmers, and especially women farmers, face a constant daily struggle to survive.This book illustrates in rich detail the complexity and diversity of women’s lives in Maragoli, western Kenya, as they work to sustain their soils and negotiate a plethora of competing demands and constraints in an increasingly stressful economic environment. With extensive use of personal narratives and photographs from the farmers of Maragoli, this book demonstrates that soil degradation is not simply a function of population pressure and ignorance; rather, it is embedded in gender relations and complex struggles at the local level.

Snapp, S.S., G. Kanyama-Phiri, B. Kamanga, R. Gilbert and K. Wellard. 2002. Farmer and researcher partnerships in Malawi: developing soil fertility technologies for the near-term and far-term. Experimental Agriculture Forthcoming

Jabbar, M.A., M. A. Mohamed Saleem and H. Li-Pun. 2001. Evolution toward transdisciplinarity in technology and resource management research: the case of a project in Ethiopia. pp.167-172. In: Klein, J.T., W Grossssenbacher-Mansuy, R Haberli, A Bill, R W Scholz, M Welti (eds). 'Transdisciplinarity: Joint Problem-Solving among Science, Technology and Society'. Birkhauser, Basel, Switzerland.  Among the top ten papers presented at the transdisciplinarity conference, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, Switzerland, 2000.

Bosma, R.H., R.L Roothaert, Ibrahim. 2001. Economic and social benefits of new forage technologies in East Kalimantan, Indonesia. CIAT Working Document No. 190. Centro Internacional de Agricultura Tropical, Los Banos, Philippines, 61 pp..

Horne, P. and W. Stür. 2003. Developing agricultural solutions with smallholder farmers -- how to get started with participatory approaches. ACIAR Monograph No. 99 120 pp.Contents1 - Before you start2- Why should I use participatory approaches3 - A participatory approach that has worked for us- Selecting villages- Agreeing on issues - Participatory Diagnosis- Searching for technology options with the focus-group- Testing and evaluating options - starting small- Reporting back to the village- Integrating promising solutions on farms- Reaching other farmers in the village- Sharing successful technologies with other villages4 - Communication and facilitation skills- Why is it important to be neutral?- What type of questions should I use?- How do I facilitate group meetings?- Using cards to analyse ideas5 - Tools- Ranking,scoring and weighting- Village walks- Village resource maps- Wealth analysis- Historical calendars- Seasonal calendars- Problem-cause diagrams- Preference analysis6 - Just do it!7 - Where can I get more information

Onduru, D., G.N. Gachini, A. de Jager and J-M. Diop. 1999. Participatory Research on Compost and Liquid Manure in Kenya. IIED Series on Managing Africa's Soils.No. 8.Soil fertility is declining in Kenya’s low potential areas. Soil fertility management technologies which are more appropriate to farmers’ socio-economic circumstances are needed. This paper presents the methodology and results of an on-farm experiment with the use of compost and liquid manure on maize, using a Participatory Technology Development (PTD) approach. One group comprised conventional farmers while the second comprised farmers using a Low External Input and Sustainable Agriculture (LEISA) approach. The study shows that with this approach, farmers and researchers can come to agreement on technologies to be tested, treatments and research design.

Gündel, S. 1998. Participatory Innovation Development and Diffusion: Adoption and adaption of introduced legumes in the traditional slash-and-burn peasant farming system in Yucatan, Mexico. Begleitprogramm Tropenökologie, GTZ, Eschborn, Germany.

Gachengo, C., C.A. Palm, E. Adams, K.E. Giller, R.J. Delve, and G. Cadisch. 1998. Organic Resource Database. TSBF 1998 Annual Report. TSBF, Nairobi.The purpose of the Organic Resource Database (ORD) is to:- collate existing data on plant quality characteristics such as chemical and physical attributes, decomposition behavior in soils and animal feed value- allow users to compare their data with comparable literature data- provide input data for soil decomposition and nutrient cycling models- provide guidelines for a minimal dataset to characterize plant quality- provide decision tools to identify best use options for these organic materials as soil amendments- identify relationships between plant quality parameters and environmental conditions- allow the user to add new dataThe main species covered are tropical legumes. Plant materials are separated into the different plant components, (e.g. leaves, stems, whole shoots, roots) accounting for much of the variation found among data for the same species. To provide a fair basis of comparison between different datasets methods for some critical quality parameters, like polyphenols, are given.The database is aimed at researchers, extensionists, NGOs and ultimately farmers.

Hilhorst, T. and F. Muchena (Eds.) 2000. Nutrients on the Move: Soil Fertility Dynamics in African Farming Systems IIED. 146pp.ContentsChapter 1: Managing soil fertility in AfricaChapter 2: Impact of policy change on soil fertility management in UgandaChapter 3: The dynamics of soil fertility management in communal areas in ZimbabweChapter 4: Soil enrichment and depletion in Southern EthiopiaChapter 5: Fallows and field systems in dryland MaliChapter 6: Rehabilitating soil fertility in Burkina FasoChapter 7: Soil fertility regeneration in Kenya

Barrios, E., M. Bekunda, R. Delve, A. Esilaba and J. Mowo. 2000. Methodologies for Decision Making in Natural Resource Management: Identifying and Classifying Local Indicators of Soil Quality. Eastern Africa Version. CIAT, SWNM, TSBF, AHI. ISBN: 958-694-013-6.The increasing interest in local soil knowledge is largely due to the realization that farmer communities that have been interacting with their soils for a long time can provide many insights into the sustainable management of tropical soils. A participatory approach, in the form of a methodological guide, has been developed and used in Latin America and Africa to identify and classify local indicators of soil quality related to permanent and modifiable soil properties. This methodological tool aims to empower local communities to better manage their soil resources through improved decision making and monitoring of their environment. It is also designed to steer soil management towards developing practical solutions to identified soil constraints and monitoring the impact of the management strategies implemented to address such constraints. The methodological approach presented here constitutes one tool to capture local demands and perceptions of soil constraints as an essential guide to relevant research and development activities. A significant component of this approach is the collaboration between technical officers and farmers to build an effective communication channel with each other. The participatory process also places considerable emphasis on consensus building among farmers to determine those soil-related constraints that should be tackled first. Such consensus is an important step toward collective action by farming communities if improved soil management strategies are to be adopted at a landscape scale.

Oberthür, T., E. Barrios, S. Cook, H. Usma, H. and G. Escobar. 2004. Increasing the relevance of scientific information in hillside environments through understanding of local soil management in a small watershed of the Colombian Andes. Soil Use and Management. 20:23-31.This article explores the question of how scientific information can improve local agronomic management using concepts of uncertainty classification and uncertainty management. Information and data on local management of soil fertility based on a local classification system of soil quality were collected from a small watershed in Cauca (Colombia). The analyses suggest that farmers hold local knowledge about soils at two levels. The first is based on empirical observations and refers to local knowledge about soils and landscape, which shows that the classes identified in the local soil quality classification are consistent with results obtained using measured soil parameters. At the second level, farmers have some awareness of ecological processes and the appropriate use of relationships between key soil characteristics and management options. It is argued that local knowledge is not sufficient to cope with uncertainty introduced by a rapidly changing agriculture, including, for example, increasing land pressure, unpredictable market forces and climate change. We have suggested how scientific knowledge can contribute to the solution, based on an analysis that relates Cohen's (Heuristic reasoning about uncertainty: an artificial intelligence approach. Pitman London, 1985) and Rowe's (Risk Analysis 14, 743-750, 1994) uncertainty concepts to local knowledge.

Nzuma. J.N.and H.K.Murwira. 2000. Improving the Management of Manure in Zimbabwe. IIED Series on Managing Africa's Soils. No. 15.Although cattle manure is widely used as a fertiliser, it is often of poor quality, as nutrients are lost through volatilisation and leaching during storage and handling. The aim of this study is to improve traditional methods of soil fertility by developing storage and handling systems that minimise losses and enhance the quality of manure. The paper presents the results of a study conducted in the Mangwende Communal Area of Zimbabwe.  results of a study conducted in the Mangwende Communal Area of Zimbabwe.

Barrios, E, and M.T. Trejo 2003. Implications of local soil knowledge for integrated soil management in Latin America. Geoderma 111 (2003) 217–231.The increasing attention paid to local soil knowledge in recent years is the result of a greater recognition that the knowledge of people who have been interacting with their soils for long time can offer many insights about the sustainable management of tropical soils. This paper describes two approaches in the process of eliciting local information. Case studies show that there is a consistent rational basis to the use of local indicators of soil quality and their relation to improved soil management. The participatory process used is shown to have considerable potential in facilitating farmer consensus about which soil-related constraints should be tackled first. Consensus building is presented as an important step prior to collective action by farming communities in integrated soil management at the landscape scale. Taking advantage of the complementary nature of local and scientific knowledge is highlighted as an overall strategy for sustainable soil management.

Baltissen,G., E. Wabwile, M. Kooijman and T. Defoer. 2000. IIED Series on Managing Africa's Soils. No. 20. Facilitating Learning Processes in Agricultural Extension: lessons from Western Kenya.

Onduru, D., A. de Jager, G. Gachini and J-M. Diop. 2001. Exploring new pathways for innovative soil fertility management in Kenya. IIED Series on Managing Africa's Soils. No. 25.This working paper discusses the impact of a multi-institutional research programme in low potential areas of Kenya. The programme elaborated nutrient balances, combined with economic analysis, to better understand causes and effects of soil fertility decline. Alongside, better soil fertility management practices were developed using a participatory technology approach. This paper assesses to what extent farmers changed their practices, if the programme has influenced ways of working with extension and research, or has led to better informed policies.

Horne, P.M. and W.W. Stur. 1999. Developing forage technologieswith smallholder farmers: How to select the best varieties to offer farmers in Southeast Asia. ACIAR Monograph No. 62. ACIAR/CIAT.Livestock are an important component of upland farming systems in Southeast Asia. In the past, feed resources were plentiful. On many farms this is no longer the case, so farmers have to spend more and more time finding feed for their animals. Planting forages can help to overcome this problem. However, no two farms have the same resources and needs. Forages that are suitable on one farm may not be suitable for other farms. The best way to develop the 'right' forage technologies for each farm is for farmers to evaluate promising forage technologies and adapt the best options to their situation.In this participatory approach the role of the development worker is to give farmers information about forages that may solve their problems. There are many forages and ways of growing them on farms. Not all will be suitable for a particular situation and need. This booklet will help development workers to select appropriate forage options to offer farmers.

Carberry, P. and A. Whitbread. are members of the APSRU team that developed the Agricultural Production Systems Simulator (APSIM) model and FARMSCAPE an action research project that set out to understand and change the use of Decision Support Systems in farmers’ management practice in Australia.