Participatory Research and
Participatory Technology Development

Encouraging farmers (or livestock-producers) to participate in research is increasingly recognized as important for achieving uptake of new technologies. For a long time, the development of participatory research methods for livestock has lagged behind similar developments for crops and horticulture, but there are now a number of publications that set out the case for participatory livestock research and suggest methods for achieving it.

See also: Indigenous Knowledge              PRA References and Further Reading

Participatory research is not a clearly defined category. On approach has been to think of research involving farmers as on a scale from contractual through consultative and collaborative to collegiate (Biggs cited in Morton et al. 2002).

	contractual	farmers are compensated for use of their land and labour by researchers
	consultative	researchers consult farmers about their problems
	collaborative	researchers and farmers are partners
	collegiate	researchers actively empower farmers to carry out their own research

It is important to be clear about the objectives of participatory research – production of new technologies, adaptation of existing technologies, empowerment of farmers – which should determine how participatory a research project should be. It is also important to recognize that for a research project to be participatory, or at least collaborative, does not mean that all its research activities need be participatory – there will be space for researcher-managed trials and laboratory experiments that can be combined in various combinations and sequences with farmer-managed trials.

Cramb, R. and Purcell, T. (2001). Developing Forage Technologies with Smallholder Farmers: How to Monitor and Evaluate Impacts. ACIAR Working Paper Series, No. 41

Horne, P.M., Magboo, E., Kerridge, P.C., Tuhulele, M., Phimphachanhvongsod, V., Gabunada Jr., F., Le Hoa Binh and Stür, W.W. (2000). Participatory Approaches to Forage Technology Development with Smallholders in Southeast Asia. Pages 23-31 in: Stür, W.W., Horne, P.M., Hacker, J.B. and Kerridge, P.C. (eds). Working with Farmers: The Key to Adoption of Forage Technologies. Proceedings of an international workshop held in Cagayan de Oro. Philippines, 12-15 October 1999. ACIAR Proceedings No. 95, 325 pp.

Morton, J., Adolph, B., Ashley, S. and Romney, D. (2002). Conceptual, methodological and institutional issues in participatory livestock production research. Livestock Research in Rural Development 14 (4).