Farmer First Revisited
Innovation for Agricultural Research and Development

Paper: 978 1 85339 682 3
Price: $25.95
Published: April 2009 

Publisher: Practical Action
386 pp., 6 1/8" x 9 1/4"
figures, tables & boxes
Agriculture is an urgent global priority and farmers find themselves in the front line of some of the world’s most pressing issues—climate change, globalization and food security. Twenty years ago, the Farmer First workshop held at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, launched a movement to encourage farmer participation in agricultural research and development (R&D), responding to farmers’ needs in complex, diverse, risk-prone environments, and promoting sustainable livelihoods and agriculture.

Since that time, methodological, institutional and policy experiments have unfolded around the world. Farmer First Revisited returns to the debates about farmer participation in agricultural R&D and looks to the future. With over 60 contributions from across the world, the book presents a range of experiences that highlight the importance of going beyond a focus on the farm to the wider innovation system, including market interactions as well as the wider institutional and policy environment. If, however, farmers are really to be put first, a politics of demand is required in order to shape the direction of these innovation systems. This calls for a major rethinking of agricultural R&D, the boosting of the knowledge and capacities of farmers’ organizations to innovate, the strengthening of networks and alliances to support, document and share lessons on farmer-led innovation, and the transformation of agricultural higher education.

Farmer First Revisited should be read by students, policy makers, development professionals, and natural and social scientists aiming to bring the concerns of grassroots farmers to the forefront.

Table of Contents:
Figures; Tables; Boxes; Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Foreword—Robert Chambers; PART ONE: REVISITING FARMER FIRST; 1) Farmer First Revisited: Innovation for Agricultural Research and Development—Ian Scoones and John Thompson; Challenges to Strengthening Agricultural Innovation Systems: Where Do We Go From Here?—Andy Hall; Fostering Farmer First Methodological Innovation: Organizational Learning and change in International Agricultural Research—Jacqueline A. Ashby; PART II: SYSTEMS OF INNOVATION; Opening Note; Farmer Participatory Research and Adaptive Management: Developing Seed Systems in Africa—Jean Claude Rubyogo and Louise Sperling; Client-Oriented Breeding and Seed Supply—John Whitcombe, Krishna Devkota, Daljit Virk, Krishna Rawal, Satish Prasad, Vikas Kumar and Krishna Joshi; Learning from Experience: Potato Innovation Systems and Participatory Research—Oscar Ortiz, Ricardo Orrego, Willy Pradel, Peter Gildemacher, Renee Castillo, Ronal Otiniano, Julio Gabriel, Juan Vallejo, Omar Torres Gebremehdin Woldegiorgis, Belew Damene, Rogers Kakuhenzire, Imelda Kashaija and Ignatius Kahio; Action Research with Local Forest Users and Managers: Lessons from CIFOR’s Research on Adaptive Collaborative Management—Ravi Prabhu, Carol Colfer, Chimere Diaw, Cynthia McDougall and Robert Fisher; Co-Management of Rangeland Resources in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region: Involving Farmers in the Policy Process—Yan Zhao-Li; The System of Rice Intensification (SRI) as a System of Agricultural Innovation—Norman Uphoff; Encounters, Dialogues and Learning Alliances: The System of Rice Intensification in India—C. Shambu Prasad; If Farmers Are First, Do Pastoralists Come in Second? Political Ecology and Participation in Central Mali—Todd A. Crane; Engaging with Markets and the Private Sector: The First Mile Experience: Connecting Farmers to Markets—Clive Lightfoot and Vincon Nyimbo; Linking Learners: Livestock Marketing Chain Development in Kenya—Michael Kibue; Beyond the Farmer and the Farm: Users’ Perspectives and Agricultural Livelihoods—Dindo Campilan, Julieta R. Roa and Julian Gonsalves; Continuing Improvement and Innovation in the Market Chain of Rootcrop Chips—Julieta R. Roa; Community Agro-Enterprise Development: Experiences from Uganda and Malawi—Jemimah Njuki, Susan Kaaria, Pascal Sanginga, Elly Kaganzi and Tennyson Magombo; Enabling Rural Innovation in Africa—Susan Kaaria, Pascal Sanginga, Jemimah Njuki, Robert Delve, Colletah Chitsike and Rupert Best; Public-Private Partnerships and Developing-Country Agriculture—David J. Speilman, Frank Hartwich and Claus von Grebmer; PART III: THE POLITICS OF DEMAND AND ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE; Opening Note; Farmers’ Organizations Fostering Farmer-Scientist Research Collaboration: The Role of the International Federation of Agricultural Products—Beatriz P. del Rosario; Promoting Farmer-Centred Research in Kenya—Nduati Kariuki; Advocacy Coalitions to Build Participatory Processes in the Altiplano: Increasing Human Capacities to Adapt to Change—Cecelia Turin; Farmers’ Movements and the Struggle for Food Sovereignty in Latin America—Maria Arce Moreira and Patrick M. Mulvany; Farmers’ Participation in Policy Advocacy Processes in Bolivia—Elizabeth Vargas and William Burgoa; Beyond Black and White: The National African farmers’ Union of South Africa—Khamarunga Banda; The Politics of Inclusion in African Agricultural Research and Development—Monty P. Jones and Sidi Sanyang; Networks and Partnerships: Building Partnerships to Promote Local Innovation Processes—Ann Waters-Bayer, Chesha Wettasinha and Laurens van Veldhuizen; Participatory Innovation Development in Ethiopia—Amanuel Assefa; Partnerships for Action Research—Scott Killough; The DURAS Project: Funding Research Partnerships—Oliver Oliveros; Research Involving Multi-Stakeholder Partnerships—Berbard Triomphe, Henri Hocdé and Guy Faure; Learning to Value LEISA: Experiences in Global Knowledge Networking for Low External Input Sustainable Agriculture—Edith van Walsum; Communicating Farmers’ Knowledge: AGRIDAPE and PROFEIS Experiences—Awa Faly Ba; Network, Institution and Movement: The Case of the Honey Bee Network—Anil Gupta; Food Sovereignty: A Farmer-Led Policy Framework—Patrick Mulvany and Maria Arce Moereira; Large Public R&D Organizations: Farmer First or Still Last? Uneven Institutional Development in the Indian Agricultural Innovation System—V. Rasheed Sulaiman; Emergence of Farmer-Centred Agricultural Science and Technology Policy in China—Li Xiayun, Qi Gubo, Xu Xiuli and Mao Miankui; Reflections on the CGIAR Systemwide Program on Collective Action and Property Rights (CAPRi)—Ruth Meinzen-Dick; Institutional Learning and Change in the CGIAR System—Jamie Watts and Douglas Horton; Learning Selection Revisited—Boru Douthwaite and Martin Gummert; PART IV: NEW PROFESSIONALISM, LEARNING AND CHANGE: Opening Note; Extension: From Diffusion to Networks Strengthening Rural Extension—Paul Van Mele; Institutionalizing Values-Based Research: Lessons from the PETRRA Project, Bangladesh—Ahmad Salahuddin, Paul Van Mele and Noel P. Magor; Putting Farmers First in Indonesia: The Case of Farmer Field Schools—Yunita T. Winarto; Farmer Participatory Research in Northern Tanzania: FARM-Africa’s Experience—Richard Ewbank, Aloyce Kasindei, Faithrest Kimaro and Salutary Slaa; Facilitation for Change: Triggering Emancipation and Innovation in Rural Communities in South Africa—Hlamalani Ngwenya and Jürgen Hagmann; Crop Management Innovation and the Economics of Attention—Robert Tripp; Knowledge Networks and Farmer Seed Systems—Paul Richards; Rethinking Agricultural Education Learning to Make Change: Developing Innovation and Change Competence in African Universities—Jurgen Hagmann, Paul Kibwika and Adipala Ekwamu; From Marginal to Normative: Institutionalizing Participatory Epidemiology—Andy Catley; Agricultural Innovation for Rural Development: A Master’s Programme for Professionals Working in Rural Areas in Peru—Maria E. Fernandez and Oscar Ortiz; Mainstreaming Participatory Rural Development Studies in China—Li Xiaoyun, Xu Xiuli, Qi Gubo, Lu Mun and Ronnie Vernooy; Making Trans-Disciplinary Science Work for Resource-Poor Farmers—Neil Röling and Janice Jiggins; Participation, Paternalism and Practicality: Reconciling Sustainability Science and Indigenous Agendas—Robert E. Rhoades; Power, Progression and Regression in Learning for Agriculture and Development—Jethro Pettit; Impact Assessment and Learning So What Difference Does it Make? Assessing the Outcomes and Impacts of Farmer Participator Research—Adrienne Martin; Monitoring for Collective Learning in Rural Resource Management—Irene Guijt; Participatory Impact Pathways Analysis—Boru Douthwaite, Sophie Alvarez, Graham Thiele and Ronald MacKay; Tracking the Impact of Policy Task Forces in Uganda—Pascal C. Sanginga, Annet Abenakyo, Rock Kamugisha, Adrienne M. Martin and Robert Murzin; Using Participatory Impact Assessment (PIA) to Inform Policy: Lessons for Ethiopia—Dawit Abebe, Andy Catley, Berhanu Admassu and Gezu Bekele; PART V. LOOKING FORWARD: The Future of The Farmer First Movement: Towards an Innovation Alliance—Ian Scoones and John Thompson; Appendix 1: List of Participants and Contributors; References; Index.


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