multipurpose tree species research for small farms: strategies ... - part

developing practical recommendations for quantitative data and activities under their
extension. The design of these activities should be control. In the future, active involvement of
dependent on the type of information needed. In farmers, and reliance on their opinion needs to
some cases, careful researcher managed be increasingly developed to make research
experiments or structured surveys are needed to more effective and efficient.
provide quantitative data. In other cases, a more
qualitative evaluation
adoption, from farmer
of
manaped
farmer opinion
e :periments
or
or
informal surveys, will be sufficient to define future
research and extension needs. Researchers are
generally more comfortable with 'hard'
Planning decisions Activity type
Is the problem clearly defined?
DIAGNOSIS
YES NO of problems and ­
recommendation domain
Are the best solutions obvious? I _________________________TESTING
YES NO __ _ _ _of solutions
and development of
alternative technology
Is the alternative clearly better
than farmer's practice? VERIFICATION
of
YES NO alternative technology
Do farmers adop!
the new practice? EXTENSION
by demonstration of
NO YES / alternative technology
ASSESSMENT
of results
Figure 1. General approach to farming systems research.
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