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Farmer First Revisited 12 – 14 December 2007 at the Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK

Farmer First Revisited 12 – 14 December 2007 at the Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK Presentation, Theme 2c, Creating Demand and Increasing Accountability: The Role of Farmers’ Organisations Discussant: Ann Waters-Bayer (PROLINNOVA).

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Farmer First Revisited 12 – 14 December 2007 at the Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK

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  1. Farmer First Revisited 12 – 14 December 2007 at the Institute of Development Studies, Brighton, UK Presentation, Theme 2c, Creating Demand and Increasing Accountability: The Role of Farmers’ Organisations Discussant: Ann Waters-Bayer (PROLINNOVA)

  2. Farmer First Revisited:Farmer Participatory Research and Development Twenty Years OnSession 2c: Creating demand and increasing accountability: the role of farmers’ organisations Discussant: Ann Waters-Bayer PROLINNOVA / ETC EcoCulture Netherlands

  3. Introduction • Role of Farmer Organisations (FOs) in strengthening farmers’ demand on agricultural research and development (ARD) • Politics of priority setting, decision-making and fund allocation in ARD • How can FOs make farmers’ voices count in ARD? • Articulating voices of marginalised farmers

  4. Beatriz del Rosario, IFAP Asia:Fostering farmer-scientist research collaboration to improve productivity and profitability • How IFAP Committee on Agricultural Research promotes collaboration of FOs and research centres • How IFAP is involved in applied research to empower farmers in the marketplace: - analysing best practices in connecting smallholders to markets - research on policy, institutions, markets, value chains etc.

  5. Khamarunga Banda:Experiences of National African Farmers Union of South Africa (NAFUSA) • Trying to give voice to black farmers • Trying to bridge divide between white commercial and black “emerging” farmers • Major concern: land issues • NAFUSA’s roles as pacifier and negotiator • Seeking to be accountable to its constituency • Doing its own research (“fact-finding”) to be able to voice members’ demands and needs

  6. Nduati Kariuki (KENFAP):Farmer-centred research • How Kenyan National Federation of Agricultural Producers works with research institutions to develop research and innovation policy and strategy to ensure that farmers’ issues and interests are addressed • Incorporating farmer participation component into research agenda • Putting farmer representatives on boards of research institutes and fora

  7. Michael Kibue, Kikasha Livestock Association, Kenya:Learning to set up a fair trade livestock marketing chain from Masai pastoralists to consumers in Nairobi • Multi-stakeholder learning platform to improve beef marketing • Based on better understanding by members along chain about each other’s roles • Making pricing transparent • Trying out new ways of working together: example of institutional action research and innovation • Importance of skilled and committed facilitator for effective learning process

  8. Elizabeth Vargas, CIPCA (Centre for Research and Promotion of Indigenous Peasant People):Farmers’ participation in policy advocacy processes • Examples from Bolivia of how peasant farmers organised themselves to influence policy related to education, culture and NRM • How peasant farmer organisations reinforced their influence in policy advocacy by joining forces with traditional institutionswith decision-making power at community, intercommunity and district level

  9. Assetou Kanouté, ADAF-Galle:Promoting Farmer Experimentation and Innovation in the Sahel (PROFEIS) • Mali experience in strengthening capacities of state agricultural services, NGOs and CBOs to support farmer-led innovation in NRM • Partnership of FO network, NGOs and national research institute as equal members in Steering Committee • FOs responsible for facilitating field activities • Identifying endogenous innovation as entry point to joint experimentation by farmers, NGOs and scientists, based on farmers’ research questions

  10. Issues highlighted Farmers’ influence on formal research • Few research centres collaborate regularly with FOs in their countries • FOs need to make more efforts to work closely with research networks at all levels • FOs should be in governance bodies of research centres and fora • Farmers should be setting the research agenda Role of government • Important to maintain public investment in agricultural research and extension • Need to keep ownership of key research results in public sphere to protect public interests and to give farmers choice

  11. Issues highlighted – 2 – Research issues • Research should deal with socio-economic and institutional issues such as farmer organisation, marketing, necessary institutional, legal and political framework Farmers’ involvement • Getting beyond merely involving farmers in testing or co-developing technologies to their involvement in institutional and policy research • Also their involvement in interpreting and formulating research results in ways that they can use in policy advocacy Access to research results • Making results available and spread widely in user-friendly forms – likely to be more understandable and to spread more quickly if FOs are involved in research and dissemination of results

  12. Differences between continents? Latin American versus African examples: • No obvious advocacy efforts of peasant farmers to influence formal institutions of ARD • Are they not concerned about what is happening in ARD? • Like small-scale mountain FO in southern Germany:- said agricultural research was completely irrelevant for them - they get their information from elsewhere • Same for peasant FOs in Bolivia? little interest to influence public-sector research because they think it has no relevance for their lives?

  13. What was not mentioned? Re farmer representation on research governance bodies: • Whom do farmer representatives actually represent- larger or smaller-scale farmers?- more commercial or more subsistence-oriented farmers?- women or men?- richer or poorer?- healthy versus HIV/AIDS- affected households? - etc • Is their participation in governance genuine or token – do their voices have weight?

  14. What was not mentioned? – 2 – • Role of FOs in alternative funding mechanisms for Farmer First approaches: how farmers’ control over research funds gives them real power to influence research agendas, e.g. locally managed innovation / research funds • Disconnect between Farmer Research Groups or other grassroots-level organisations with which Farmer-First approaches are applied and formalised FOs at national and international level

  15. Some points for discussion • How important is (participatory) agricultural research for FOs? • What should be the roles of FOs in agricultural innovation systems? What conflicts / trade-offs are involved in playing these roles? • To whom should research and advisory services be accountable, and what role can FOs play in achieving this accountability? • What role(s) should FOs have with regard to financing agricultural research and governing research funds? • How can FOs make the voices of marginalised farmers heard - in their own organisations and - in policy platforms related to ARD?

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