Strengthening Farmer Participation through Groups: Experiences and Lessons fromBotswana. Special Series on the Organization and Management of On-Farm Client-Oriented Research

摘要

The paper presents the experience of a research program conducted by Botswana'sMinistry of Agriculture in the Francistown Region which has worked with farmer groups for the past 7 years. Topics include: the need for farmer participation, the effectiveness of farmer groups, the magnitude of and output from this activity, the benefits obtained, the issues that arose during the development of the method, and overall conclusions. Farmers participated in the program through research-oriented groups which provided a forum for the joint design, testing, and evaluation of a wide range of technology options by both researchers and farmers. Over 120 farmers from three villages implemented up to 140 trials annually, involving up to 14 different technology options. The group approach has recently been adopted by Botswana's extension service at the pilot program level.