Vanuatu

Department of Agriculture and Horticulture in Vanuatu.

Participatory research often involves methods to discover the needs, problems, and solutions of the different interested parties. Planning research requires social, economic, private sector and environmental investigations done with the full and active participation of people in the commercial and subsistence sectors. Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) tools and techniques will be especially helpful to gain participation on the grass-roots level. Effective use of these tools requires special training and experience.

In 1995, as part of the Pacific Regional Agricultural Programme, the Department of Agriculture and Horticulture in Vanuatu began a research programme to assist farmers in improving productivity of their gardens. They diagnosed farm problems in three areas using semi-formal questionnaires and then using participatory tools.

The questionnaires asked questions like, Why don't the farmers mulch? What are the uses of trees left on the land when clearing? Field visits to selected farmers tried to identify problems by interviewing farmers and observing their farms.

In the Participatory approach, community meetings were organised in three villages and PRA tools were used to gather information on the farming systems.

The Agriculture extension officers discussed farming problems with the farmers and tried to get them to prioritise their problems using a variety of methods. The farmers were unable to reach a consensus as to their collective priorities, but agreed to rank them individually using stones to represent the problems.

Once the causes were understood, the farmers were asked what they thought was the best solution to the problems. These were listed and the relative merits of each solution discussed before new technologies or solutions were suggested by the extension agents. When the new ideas were introduced the reasons why the agricultural agents thought they might work were carefully explained so the farmers understood the relationships.

Pursuing participatory and sustainable development practices (Commitment 3, Rome Declaration on World Food Security and the World Food Summit Plan of Action 1996); Land resources; Sustainable agriculture.

Farmers used causal diagrams as tools to discuss the causes of the farm problems. This was not simply an extracting of the farmers' knowledge, as they did not, for example, know about nutrient deficiencies in the soils. As the farmers are superstitious, they might blame the death of their crops from disease on black magic or spells. But by discussing and listening carefully to the farmers the Agricultural agents found a deep knowledge of the relationship between certain pests and diseases and crop problems. They knew, for example, that taro should not be planted where bananas had been before to prevent damage from taro beetles. Scientists have only recently learned that bananas are a host plant for the beetle.

Once the farmers understand the solutions offered to them, our experience shows that they are eager to test them and compare them with their own practice.

Partners in the work and they are the ones who determine the need for innovation in a participatory manner.