Thompson, John

The authors view knowledge as a social process, and knowledge systems in terms of multiple actors and networks through which the communication and negotiation of information takes place, and not as unitary cohesive structures. The purpose of this paper is to challenge æFarmer FirstÆ unitary populist approaches to knowledge to reassess how people in different agroecological and sociocultural contexts understand and deal with research and extension processes, engage each other in different endeavours, and assert power relations for social and political purposes.

Drawing on case studies from six countries, this report examines recent innovative applications of PRA in research, development and impact analysis of irrigation and water resource management programmes. The case studies are taken from different socio-technical contexts and range from the use of PRA to examine water user's perspectives of irrigation performance to watershed management planning. Lessons learnt from the examples are outlined and finally challenges and opportunities for the use of participatory methods in water resource management are summarised.

This paper examines why a growing number of government bureaucracies are attempting to develop and integrate participatory research and development approaches into their programme activities. Using a conceptual model of the institutional learning and training cycle, it analyses the experiences of three large public agencies in Sri Lanka, Kenya and the Philippines which have made significant progress towards building internal capacity to employ participatory approaches effectively and facilitate the process of institutional change.

This article presents the very interesting history of a government agency which has adopted participatory procedures to mobilise communities for resource conservation. It starts with a brief history of soil and water conservation (SWC) in Kenya. The inability of conventional approaches led to the adoption of the Catchment Approach by the Soil and Water Conservation Branch of the Ministry of Agriculture. In this approach, conservation efforts are concentrated in a specified catchment for a limited period of time.