Beyond Farmer First: Rural peoples knowledge, agricultural research and extension practice

by Ian Scoones, John Thompson

The purpose of this book is to reveal how agricultural research and extension, far from being discrete, rational acts, are in fact part of a process of coming to terms with conflicting interests and viewpoints. By going beyond Farmer First, this theoretically informed perspective describes agricultural development as what it is: a highly ideological and political process. As Robert Chambers notes in his foreword, the concerns of Farmer First with performance and of Beyond Farmer First with process, indicate that a radical rethinking of knowledge, power and agricultural science is well under way.

288 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 1994

About the author

Ian Scoones is a professorial fellow at the Institute of Development Studies at the University of Sussex, UK, and Director of the ESRC STEPS Centre, UK. He works on land, agricultural and agrarian and environmental change in Africa. He is a founding member and co-convenor of the Land Deal Politics Initiative.

Reviews

[Philip · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very useful book with valuable lessons about participatory farmer engagement.