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Farmer Participation in On-Station Tree Species Selection for Agroforestry: a Case Study from Burundi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 October 2008

Steven Franzel ,
Leonidas Hitimana  and
Ekow Akyeampong
Steven Franzel
Affiliation:
International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), PO Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya
Leonidas Hitimana
Affiliation:
Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU), BP 795, Bujumbura, Burundi
Ekow Akyeampong
Affiliation:
International Centre for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), PO Box 30677, Nairobi, Kenya
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Summary

Surveys and on-farm trials are frequently used to facilitate farmer participation in agricultural research. This paper reports on a less common method-farmer involvement in on-station trials. Thirty-nine farmers were invited to multipurpose-tree screening trials in Burundi. Three different methods were used to determine which species the farmers wanted to test on their own farms. Private interviews and voting by a show of hands in plenary sessions gave very similar results whereas focus group interviews produced different and contradictory results. Researchers also learned what criteria farmers used to evaluate trees and the reasons for their choices. A supplementary survey of farmers’ preferences for trees grown on their own farms confirmed the findings and more clearly defined their criteria. In this survey, farmers used a local board game, Bao, to rate tree species across criteria they considered important. Overall, the visit to the trials and follow-up survey proved to be a useful and cost-effective method for getting farmer input and applying it in the screening process.

La participación de los agricultores en la selección de especies de árboles

Type
Research Article
Information
Experimental Agriculture , Volume 31 , Issue 1 , January 1995 , pp. 27 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1995

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