View article

Since 1989, when the Farmer First book was published, growing numbers of professionals have been advocating and adopting a farmer-first approach to technology development. However, the changes advocated are not being realized on a sufficient scale or with the required commitment. In 1991, the Sustainable Agriculture Programme of the International Institute for Environment and Development launched a three-year programme of research support and institutional collaboration entitled 'Beyond Farmer First: Rural People's Knowledge, Agricultural Research and Extension Practice'. Collaborators from a number of countries prepared detailed case studies on the interplay between formal and informal knowledge systems and assessed the wider implications for agricultural research and extension practice. The cases were presented and reviewed, along with a variety of discussion papers on key theoretical …