Drinkwater, M.

The article describes a participatory appraisal and needs assessment (PANA) training workshop run by the NGO CARE Zambia in August 1994. The training was part of a strategy to reorient CARE's activities away from infrastructure improvement through food-for-work towards a more holistic livelihoods approach. Two important initial strategy decisions had to be made: how to reorient project staff; and how to generate greater participation by the communities concerned.

In September 1991 a workshop on participatory methods for working with farmers was held for one national and eight provincial teams which comprise the Adaptive Research Planning Team (ARPT) in Zambia. Its main purpose was to evaluate the the bean or finger millet varieties that the groups had been working on. Matrices were the prime method of evaluation generated through discussions held with farmers. The paper looks at the setting up of the matrix, the ranking exercise and arguments with respect to the value of the three varieties.

This paper considers the work of the Adaptive Research Planning Team (ARPT) in Zambia in the light from the conventional "transfer of technology" paradigm to a "farmer first" approach. It deals with the central issues facing ARPT in its move towards increasing levels of farmer participation in the adaptive research work of provincial teams. It aims to establish what participation means to APRT, why APRT should pursue participation and how this can be achieved.