Farmer Participation in Agricultural Research

This article examines why farmer participatory research has recently become an important issue in LDCs but less so in DCs, and looks at why this approach developed largely with a view to rain-fed areas. It also discusses the characteristics of farmer participatory research and the prospects for placing these approaches on a sustainable institutional footing. Attached is a short article by Robert Chambers from the Journal of International Agricultural Development (1988) on the trends in thinking and priority in agriculture and the implications for research. The emphasis of this article is on the emergence of 'Farmer First' approaches, and on the shifts in behaviour that this requires.