Within this approach we tend to assign "participation" to discrete steps in
the research process and we have defined the terms of participation and the
participants rather narrowly. Farming Systems approaches to agroforestry
research often relegate participation entirely to the first and final phases in
the technology testing process, as "problem diagnosis" and "adaptive research,"
respectively. For example, researchers consult selected farmers
about their production problems in a particular crop or livestock system. The
research team designs a technology to address the problem(s) and on-station
trials to test their ideas, as illustrated in the first part of Fig. 1. Later, in
"adaptive" on-farm research, participating farmers (usually men heads of
household) contribute a plot, their own and family labor, and perhaps their
opinions as to the performance of a particular tree species, or an entire alleycropping
package. The research is deemed to be participatory by virtue of its
response to farmer problems, its location in a farmer's field (off-station), the
farmer's presence, or the farmer's judgement of the technology. This view of
"participatory research" limits formally recognized scientific research and