Humphries, S. J. Gonzales, J. Jimenez and F. Sierra. 2000. Searching for sustainable land use practices in honduras: lessons from a programme of participatory research with hillside farmers. AgREN Network Paper 104. ISBN 0-85003-486-8Participatory Research in Central America (Investigación Participativa en Centroamerica, IPCA) is a project established by the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture, and coordinated through the University of Guelph, Canada, to support farmers in community-based agricultural research in the region. Local agricultural research committees, known by the Spanish acronym CIALs (comités de investigación agricola local), are found in eight Latin American countries at the present time. The IPCA project has been monitoring the development of CIALs in Honduras for the past five years. This paper presents the results of the evaluation to date and considers these in light of current debates around farmer participatory research.The experience of IPCA shows that teaching formal research methods to poor hillside farmers is viable and has served to link farmers to formal-sector researchers in innovative technology development programmes that directly meet users’ needs. Farmers have not only benefited through access to new technologies, but they have also learnt new ways to manage their environments and have been empowered in the process. However, evaluation of the project has shown that unless research has relatively short-term payoffs, farmers are apt to lose interest. Thus, complex research – in particular research involving natural resource management – needs to be framed within the context of social programmes that can provide more immediate benefit to farmers. Technology-led development must be supported by other development initiatives that aim to build social capital as widely as possible across the community.

Ashby, J.A.; Braun, A.R.; Gracia T.; Guerrero, M.P.; Hernandez, L.A.; Quiros, C.A.; Roa, J.A. 2001. La comunidad se organiza para hacer investigación CIAL en America Latina. CIAT. Cali, Colombia.Este libro trata acerca de una nueva clase de institución aquella en la que los agricultores de escasos recursos se encargan de un proceso de investigación agrícola que los beneficia a ellos y a su comunidad. El Comité de Investigación Agrícola Local (CIAL) pretende, con la ayuda de personas capacitadas provenientes de otros lugares, animar a los agricultores para que realicen su propia investigación agrícola y para que involucren en esa tarea a su comunidad. Este enfoque participativo es efectivo mientras el CIAL dé resultados útiles a su comunidad. La metodología está diseñada para que garantice una capacitación eficaz tanto para los agricultores como para las personas ajenas a esa comunidad pero que estén interesadas, y para que sea relevante a diferentes ámbitos institucionales y culturales. La Fundación W.K. Kellogg patrocinó el proyecto que desarrolló originalmente la metodología. Se presentan resúmenes en inglés, español y francés. Disponible también en ingles.

Braun, A.R. and H. Hocdé. 2000. Farmer Participatory Research in Latin America: Four Cases. pp. 32-53 IN: W.W.Stur, P.M. Horne, J.B.Hacker and P.C. Kerridge (Eds.) Working with Farmers: The Key to Adoption of Forage Technologies. ACIAR Publication PR095. 325 pp.Farmer Participatory Research (FPR) emerged in response to limitations of top-down R&D approaches. In Latin America, the principles and concepts of FPR are rooted in earlier participatory research experiences in fields such as education, sociology and health, usually played out within a community-development context. Contributions of Paulo Freire and Orlando Fals Borda are discussed briefly. To analyse these experiences, a typology based on decision-making locus in research, farmers’ and scientists’ roles, and the style of research conducted was used. Three approaches were distinguished: scientist-led, farmer-led and interactive research. Four cases are analysed: (1) Farmer-to-Farmer program, Nicaragua, founded in 1987 by the National Farmers and Ranchers Union (UNAG) based on volunteer farmer-promoters. The focus is on low external-input agriculture. (2) Diagnosis, Investigation and Participation (DIP), formed in 1994 by a multidisciplinary team with linkages to the Veterinary Medicine and Animal Science Faculty at the Autonomous University in Yucatan, Mexico. Their objective is to improve the quality of life of indigenous communities at the forest-agriculture interface through participatory innovation based on local resources. (3) Farmer Experimentation, initiated by PRIAG (Regional Program for Reinforcement of Agronomic Research on Basic Grains) in Central America, in 1991. The objective is to increase the self-reliance of small- and medium-scale producers in generating and disseminating technology. (4) Local agricultural research committees (CIALs), first launched by CIAT in Colombia in 1990, to strengthen rural communities’ capacity as decision-makers and innovators of agricultural solutions and to exert demand on the formal R&D system. The discussion focuses on similarities and differences in the processes, principles, roles and relationships underlying these experiences and key lessons learned.

Braun A; Thiele G; Fernandez M. 2000. Farmer field schools and local agricultural research committees: Complementary platforms for integrated descision-making in sustainable agriculture. Agricultural Research & Extension Network (AgREN). Network paper No. 105.

Hagmann, J. and E. Chuma. 2002. Enhancing the adaptive capacity of the resource users in natural resource management. Agricultural Systems Vol 73 (1), 23-39 pp. Request reprintThe paper focuses on the role of learning tools in enhancing the capacity of resource users to innovate and manage their land in an adaptive manner. Based on experiences in Zimbabwe, core elements of a learning process approach to innovation in natural resource management using "learning tools" is described and analysed. The approach is centred around socio-organisational strengthening and farmer learning through experimentation and discovery, both integrated into a coherent intervention process design. High quality process facilitation led by strong vision, empathy and a `culture of inquiry' is considered fundamental to unleash the potential of learning tools and process approaches. The experiences of the case study presented in the paper reveal that learning tools can only be highly effective if applied within a coherent learning process. Dissemination or scaling-up of this type of capacity building through learning tools therefore needs to focus on promoting of the process of learning rather than simply recommending certain tools or technologies which have been developed. This requires the development of facilitation skills of development agencies and farmer organisations.

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.

Ashby, J, J. Beltran, T. Gracia, M. Guerrero, C. Quiros, J. Roa, C. Trujillo and F. Escobar. 1993. Cartillas para Comites de Investigacion Agricola Local 1-13/. Primers for Local Agricultural Research Committees 1-13 (translated by A. Braun). CIAT, Cali, Colombia.