1. What are your goals as researchers on the JIRCAS project in the Upper Mekong Basin?
To do research that can:
produce high quality research?
reduce erosion into ponds?
increase runoff into ponds?
improve the livelihoods of poorer farmers (increase production, increase income, reduce labour inputs)?

2. How can you achieve these goals?
On-Station Research?

3. Rice Nursery Evaluation on-station
Controlled by Researchers
Agronomic trials in small
plots on-station
Production trials
in larger plots on station
Seed Multiplication
Extension

4. On-Station Research has produced many useful technologies which have been adopted in the lowlands (rice varieties, fertiliser management, pest control)
On-station research has not produced many technologies that have been widely adopted in the uplands
Why?

6. It was thought that the poor adoption of technologies in the uplands was because the environmental conditions on stations were much better than on farms
So, researchers started conducting some trials on farmers fields

7. How can you achieve these goals?
On-Station Research?
On-Farm Research?

8. Simply renting farmers’ fields for running trials did not result in any better adoption.
Technologies demonstrated on ‘model’ farms have not been adopted by other farmers
Why?

9. It was thought that poor adoption was because we did not understand all the complex conditions on farms.
So researchers conducted detailed studies of the farming systems to try to understand what technologies might work

10. How can you achieve these goals?
On-Station Research?
On-Farm Research?
Farming Systems Research?

11. Farming systems research helped us understand upland farming systems better, but adoption of technologies offered to farmers was still limited.
Why?

12. We now believe that the reasons for poor adoption are that:
upland farming systems are highly variable. There are big differences in resources, problems and opportunities between individual farmers. No single technology will work everywhere

13. We now believe that the reasons for poor adoption are that:
we can never fully understand farmers’ problems and opportunities as well as they do.
farmers are the experts in these farming systems. Only they can decide which technologies are likely to be most suitable for their farms, their resources and their problems

14. How can you achieve these goals?
On-Station Research?
On-Farm Research?
Farming Systems Research?
Participatory Research?

15. In the rest if this course, we will talk about…
Some of the approaches you can use in participatory research
Some of the tools that will help you quantify farmers’ needs, preferences and impacts

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