Farmer participation in on-farm research: The experience of the Ghana Grains Development Project
2000
Aflakpui, G.K.S., Crops Research Institute, Councillor Scientific and Industrial Research, P. O. Box 3785. Kumasi,Ghana | Dapaah, H.K., Crops Research Institute, Councillor Scientific and Industrial Research, P. O. Box 3785. Kumasi,Ghana
This paper describes the Ghana Grains Development Project's research programme which used a farmer oriented approach where farmers' constraints, conditions, and practices formed the basis for planning research and extension agenda. Multidisciplinary teams of agronomists, economists and extension specialists were involved in working with farmers in the on-farm research programme. Farmers were involved in identifying production constraints in the diagnostic as well as the planning stages of research. They also participated actively in identifying possible solutions to the identified problems. These possible solutions then constituted treatments in designed experiments and verifications. Throughout the cQnduct of tield experiments and verifications, farmers' opinions were continually sought to help modify particular treatments which appeared unpromising. The result of this level of involvement of farmers (from the diagnostic through planning to the execution stage of field experiments) is greater farmer confidence in adopting recommendations.
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