Participatory Farm Management methods for assessing the suitability of potential innovations. A case study on green manuring options for tomato producers in Ghana

Dorward, P. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2831-3693, Galpin, M. and Shepherd, D. (2003) Participatory Farm Management methods for assessing the suitability of potential innovations. A case study on green manuring options for tomato producers in Ghana. Agricultural Systems, 75 (1). pp. 97-117. ISSN 0308-521X doi: 10.1016/S0308-521X(02)00034-3

Abstract/Summary

This paper examines the potential of using Participatory Farm Management methods to examine the suitability of a technology with farmers prior to on-farm trials. A study examining the suitability of green manuring as a technology for use with wet season tomato producers in Ghana is described. Findings from this case-study demonstrate that Participatory Budgeting can be used by farmers and researchers to analyse current cultivation practices, identify the options for including green manures into the system and explore the direct and wider resource implications of the technology. Scored-Causal Diagrams can be used to identify farmers' perceptions of the relative importance of the problem that the technology seeks to address. The use of the methods in this examine evaluation process appears to have the potential to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the adaptive research process. This ensures that technologies subsequently examined in trials ate relevant to farmers' interests, existing systems and resources, thereby increasing the chances of farmer adoption. It is concluded that this process has potential for use-with other technologies and in other farming systems. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/8472
Item Type	Article
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Life Sciences > School of Agriculture, Policy and Development
Uncontrolled Keywords	participatory farm management (PFM), PRA, farmer participatory, research, needs assessment, suitability assessment, ex-ante evaluation, green manure, Ghana
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