Brian G. Sims                              Jeffery W. Bentley
                                           Silsoe Research Institute                 Independent Consultant

In recent years, the development community has made a fetish of the phrase ãparticipatory research.ä  In the case of a research project in Bolivia (Hillside Soil and Water Conservation÷Prolade), research was successfully conducted, regardless of the amount of farmer collaboration.  For some topics, on-station agricultural research is more effective.  Farmer participation in agricultural research is still a powerful tool that needs to be refined.

The term ãparticipatory researchä covers a range of interactions between scientists and farmers, with different levels of participation between the two.  In the Bolivian inter-Andean region research described, three types of participation are identified: nominal or contractual; consultative; and decisive.

Decisive participatory research is an appropriate model in the stages of consolidation and diffusion of practices demonstrated with nominal and consultative participatory research.  For farmers it is sometimes difficult to understand the causes of the problems that arise from the loss of fertility and moisture from the soil.  New techniques, such as vegetative soil and water conservation practices, need to be demonstrated so that farmers can compare them with their actual practices.  The sequence is something like:

1. The identification and prioritization of agricultural production problems which arise through soil degradation, and the local practices employed to combat them, is the field for the initial phases of participatory research.

2. Pre-select species for distinct agro-ecological zones in experimental stations.

3. Later, a decisive participatory research focus is indicated for the evaluation of promising alternatives.

In the case of this project, farmers participate fully in the stages of problem identification and on-farm validation and fine-tuning of alternatives, but they are not so closely involved with the process of technology development.  However we resist the temptation to extrapolate this experience to all situations.

The concept of participatory research is new in all the communities where the projects described are collaborating.  And so, due to the novel character of the concepts, the model is undergoing a period of trial, evaluation and perfecting. The different components of the Prolade Project have used distinct levels of participation.  In spite of the differences, all the levels have produced positive and useful results, and all have their place in the research program

All three project components share competent, motivated staff with good technical support. This is probably more important than their different approaches to farmer participation.  The study has shown that the level of participation by the farmer does not affect, to any great extent, the success of the development of the technique of live barriers in Bolivia.  But the participation of the farmer is a major contributory factor in the adoption of the practice.  This perhaps reflects the fact that farmer participation is appropriate, but is less important than competent researchers with adequate working conditions.

Participatory research is a tool, or a set of tools, that, under certain conditions, functions well for the development of new agricultural technologies.  However, traditional on-station research is still useful, above all in numerical data collection where they farmer cannot contribute much information (for example in the introduction of new cover crop species).  Participatory research complements on-station research, but does not replace it.  Participatory research is not the key to the universe.

Keywords: Participatory research; soil conservation, hillside agriculture, Bolivia