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Introduction
Publications
Publications (87)
Agricultural research designs tend to be bounded by agroecological conditions, farming systems and other dimensions assumed to be homogeneous for the population of interest (that is, a recommendation domain or population for whom a technology or practice is expected to be relevant). Scaling is then a question of 'rolling out' results across the dom...
This article reviews and analyses the evolution of organic seed regulation in
the US, as a model case of how challenges in a new regulatory area are being
addressed. The study draws on formal interviews of key stakeholders, participant
observation, and documents generated in a six-year period between 2007 and
2013. The article addresses three main...
Forests are a significant component of integrated agriculture-based livelihood systems, such as those found in many parts of Asia. Women and the poor are often relatively dependent on, and vulnerable to changes in, forests and forest access. And yet, these same actors are frequently marginalized within local forest governance. This article draws on...
Despite recognition of forests’ roles in rural livelihoods, there has been relatively little empirical exploration of community forestry's contribution to poverty alleviation. Similarly, there has been little study of the interaction of social learning-based approaches to forest governance with poverty alleviation. This article draws on 6 years of...
This article presents the results of a study on women's roles and identity as farmers, as perceived by 17 women and 24 men in three Syrian villages, which was carried out between 2007 and 2009 as part of long-term, in-depth research in these villages in the context of a participatory plant breeding programme. The findings reveal that understanding...
This paper analyses the diagnostic studies of this special issue to underline their function in probing the opportunity for transformational change and the potential of socio-technical novelties in such processes of change. The studies document the ability of poor, illiterate farmers to create novelties, and, sometimes, to develop the institutional...
This paper explores changes in the organization of seed supply in China over the last decade by means of a multi-level institutional analysis. At the landscape level, the implications for China of the regulation of plant genetic resources through various international treaties and conventions are reviewed in the light of the evolution of the global...
This paper examines changes in the distribution of maize hybrids and landraces in the mountainous areas of southwest China
over 1998–2008, farmers’ reasons for cultivar adoption and the implications for national policies in relation to seed production
and breeding, based on baseline data and a survey conducted in Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou. The st...
This paper characterises some of the main issues confronting water-catchment managing in a climate-changing world and addresses
wide-spread concerns about the lack of connectivity between science, policy making and implementation. The paper’s arguments
are ‘framed’ within a paradigm of systemic and adaptive governing, regulating, planning and manag...
Working in a tense political climate with a village to be resettled from a national park in Mozambique, this research looked
for a way to be relevant to the complex situation at hand. The objective of the research at the outset was to improve post-resettlement
food security. While intending to carry out a formal cycle of action research focused on...
The "New Variant Famine" hypothesis proposed that AIDS offers a major challenge to food security in this part of Africa by impairing the functioning of traditional support systems, leading to the collapse of "social immunity". This study explores the changing perceptions of HIV and AIDS and peoples' responses to its impact by eliciting life history...
This chapter explores intensive hands-on occupational education for farmers in selected European, African, Latin American countries and in south India. An Indian case study of Farmer Field Schools for Integrated Pest and Production Management (IPPM) to ensure food security and livelihood improvement is presented, to introduce discussion of the role...
Sixty-five farmers reported on pesticide use and the signs and symptoms of acute pesticide poisoning when using two different plant protection strategies: in 2003 using chemical controls and in 2004 using an approach to Integrated Pest Management (IPM) based on an ecological analysis of the field conditions. Exposure to organophosphates was confirm...
The need to increase agricultural sustainability has induced the government of India to promote the adoption of integrated pest management (IPM). An evaluation of cotton-based conventional and IPM farming systems was conducted in India (2002-2004). The farmers managing the IPM farms had participated in discovery-based ecological training, namely Fa...
Integrated pest management (IPM) has been introduced in India to reduce the serious impact of the use of highly toxic pesticides on people’s health and the environment. However, IPM diffusion has been slow, in part because of the inherent complexity of the approach based on decisions requiring knowledge of ecological principles and local ecological...
This synthesis of the SLIM project findings deals with the development and deployment of knowledge and research that is useful for actions that transform at socially and ecologically meaningful scales. A diagnostic framework (DF) is elaborated that aims to transform the findings into a tool that could bring stakeholders, in other contexts, to under...
This article deals with responses in the Netherlands to a widespread perception within the water sector of crisis, rooted in an appreciation that former ways of managing water could no longer deal with contemporary and possible future events. The crisis and initial responses are first outlined, grounding the SLIM project experience in Dutch water m...
Public policy in developing countries has failed to invest in educating farmers on how to deal with variable agro-ecosystems and a changing world. Here we present an assessment of a participatory training approach in changing crop protection by farmers from chemically dependent, to more sustainable practices in line with the tenets of Integrated Pe...
Over the past few years many policy reports have been published which call for new attention as to the pivotal role of agriculture in (rural) development. These reports raised the question at both the Netherlands’ Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) and the Netherlands’ Directorate-General for International Co-operation (DGIS) wh...
A study of the institutional context of the cotton industry in Benin was conducted in 2004, based on an analysis of stakeholders' interests and influence. The impacts on innovation processes and production systems are analysed with respect to farmers' organizations, the research and extension system and the economics of cotton production. The metho...
The article introduces the IJAS special issue on the Convergence of Sciences (CoS) research programme that took place in Benin and Ghana between 2002 and 2006. CoS sought to develop pro-poor pathways of science. Starting initially from the assumption that science impact could be improved by developing farm technologies that are appropriate for the...
Farmer field schools (FFSs) were conducted in southern India to reduce pesticide input and enhance sustainability of cotton production systems. This study was carried out to determine the additional benefits of FFSs in the social and economic arena, using the sustainable livelihoods (SL) concept to frame the evaluation. Farmers who had participated...
A season-long assessment of acute pesticide poisoning among farmers was conducted in three villages in India. Fifty female cotton growers reported the adverse effects experienced after exposures to pesticides by themselves and by their male relatives (n=47). The study documented the serious consequences of pesticide use for the health of farmers, p...
Cotton production constraints in Benin as perceived by farmers were studied from May to July 2003. The knowledge, perceptions and practices of farmers growing cotton under different pest management regimes were analysed. The methods used were open and semi-structured interviews with groups and individuals, as well as participatory exercises (brains...
Cotton production constraints in Benin as perceived by farmers were studied from May to July 2003. The knowledge, perceptions and practices of farmers growing cotton under different pest management regimes were analysed. The methods used were open and semi-structured interviews with groups and individuals, as well as participatory exercises (brains...
Background: SLIM stands for 'Sociak Learning for the Integrated Management and Sustainable Use of Water at Catchment Scale'. It is a multi-country research project funded by the European Commission (DG RESEARCH - 5th Framework Programme for research and technological development, 1998-2002). Its main theme is the investigation of the socio-economic...
For many years, the activities associated with transferring research into practice have been guided by assumptions of linear process and institutional responsibility, relative stability in boundary conditions, equilibrium dynamics, and scientific expertise as the source of innovation. More recent theory and practice challenge each of these assumpti...
The space for action that might move agricultural systems toward sustainability is narrowing. In so far as increasing dis-order in agroecosystems and food systems is caused by human agency, then remedial action must take account of cognition. This article argues that an understanding of cognitive processes is essential, as the foundation for partic...
Two different perspectives mark the discourse about the valuation of ecological services: (i) a positivist-realist perspective, and (ii) a constructivist perspective. The implications of the constructivist perspective for valuation are presented. First, is analyzed the current dominant practice of environmental valuation in terms of its epistemolog...
On the basis of exploratory empirical studies, the article constructs the attributes of a framework for sustainable agriculture, comprising technology, farmer activity, ecosystem level, extension, diffusion, policy, knowledge system and epistemology. By constrasting this complex with entrepreneurial agriculture, the conclusion is drawn that the eco...
In sub-Saharan Africa, household-based agricultural activity remains the foundation of rural livelihoods — and women do most of the work. Their activities are under increasing stress; they and their children are falling into poverty even as their need for cash income is increasing. Although they keep a foothold in the household economy, increasingl...
Agricultural policies, resource allocations and service provisions which fail to recognise the extent of women's participation in farming are irrational, reducing the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural sector investments. Special strategic intervention is required to re-orient ministries of agriculture towards serving women farmers. Data-...
The greatest challenge now facing agricultural science is not how to increase production overall but how to enable resource-poor farmers to produce more.The transfer-of-technology (TOT) model of agricultural research is part of the normal professionalism of agricultural scientists. In this model, scientists largely determine research priorities, de...
Part I of this paper13 described the Transfer-of-Technology (TOT) model of normal agricultural research and its misfit with the needs of Resource-Poor Farmers (RPFs). Farming Systems Research (FSR) was seen as an adaptation of TOT which retained power and initiative in the hands of scientists. The Farmer-First-and-Last (FFL) approach proposed in th...
Women's rôles in agricultural production and processing and the mechanisms of agrarian change which adversely affect many women's participation in, and enjoyment of, the benefits of development are by now fairly well documented. Causal analysis is becoming more sophisticated and understanding of the importance of local variations in the differentia...
In Part I, an attempt was made to show the extent to which what is at present known about women's rôles in agriculture and related activities has failed to impact on the World Bank which, in terms of its visibility and spending power, tends to set the tone for other donors and national governments. It was argued that most donors and governments hav...
The paper presents four approaches to evaluation for assessing situations and outcomes where simple linear cause and effect analysis is not useful or possible. Typically they address situations at the interface of human uses of a gricultural and natural resources. The strengths and limitations of each for the evaluation of FFS are discussed. They a...
The paper draws on three strands of experience: the authors" involvement in a trans-disciplinary research project in Africa, their role as writers in the IAASTD, and their tenure as social scientists in agricultural universities. The paper reports major propositions and the conclusions that follow. Making trans-disciplinary science work for resourc...
Changing the Boundaries explores gender relations with respect to education, reproductive health services, and agricultural resources -- three factors that are widely recognized as being central to the struggle for gender equity, population control, and environmental sustainability. As well as defining the role of women in the population-environmen...