) Farmer Experimenters: Self-developed Technology n Honduras, as the result of the work Participatory technology develop- I of some 20 agriculturad development ment (PTD) programs in Honduras ] agencies up through the early 1990s, Starting with the initiation of the hundreds of farmer experimenters World Neighbors-managed Guinope (FEs) have been experimenting totally Program in January of 1981, PTD has on their own for anywhere from two to become a fairly widely used methodol- ten years after the closing of the pro- ogy of agricultural development in grams in which they were previously Honduras. Some 20 development orga- involved. In 1999, the Association of nizations taught farmers to experiment Advisors for a Sustainable, Ecological in at least 30 different programs and People-Centered Agriculture around the country. Many of these pro- (COSECHA) in Honduras decided to grams ended by the early 1990s, with find out what technologies these FEs the result that Honduras is one of the had been developing on their own, and richest nations in terms of its per capita how these technologies could best be concentration of FEs who have been ex- disseminated to other farmers. To that perimenting wvithout any institutional end, COSECHA has systematically in- support. However, no institution had terviewed 50 of these FEs. The tech- ever studied this phenomenon. nologies counted were only those that small farmers had developed on their No. 49 own, after program termination, and October 2002 that had not been promoted or known within the country prior to the FE's IKNotes reports periodically on discovery of the technology. Indigenous Knowledge (OK) initiatives The study shows that FEs are capable in Sub-Saharan Africa and occasionally on such initiatives outside the Region. of developing large numbers of very It is published by the Africa Region's significant and original technologies, Knowledge and Learning Center as providing evidence that the collecting part of an evolving IK partnership between the World Bank, communi- .ONAL 19,1 and dissemination of FE technologies ties, NGOs, development institutions ->sMON ,,L in other nations around the world could and multilateral organizations. The views expressed in this article are be a very useful activity for institutions those of the authors and should not be involved in agricultural'development. attributed to the World Bank Group or its partners in this initiative. A >ONl AND vwebpage on IK is available at / wvw.worldbank.org/afr/i k/ default.htm 2 The study These 52 FEs have developed 82 technologies, mostly hav- ing to do with extensive agriculture, but including a small COSECHAl has made visitshe tobothes the Fesehomed the minority of post-harvest and food preparation technologies. fields where they apply the technology they developed. Dur- An attempt has been made to grade these technologies in ing these visits, an interview is carried out, which consists of three categories. Category A represents those technologies an informal conversation in wshich the interviwer tries to which seem valuable enough in terms of farmer benefits ac- Ake sure thateach of a list of some twentY issues is covered crued and width of applicability among other farmers in Hon- After each visit (which tytpically takes at leasthalf a day), the duras rendering them worthy of further validation and then, list of questions prepared at the beginning of the study is depending on the results of the validation process, dissemi- checked to make sure all the questions have been dealt with, nating to other farmers. Category B includes those technolo- The questions deal vith such issues as what technologies gies that might be worth validating, but which would be The questions exper teal with, suchaisu what technologies s done later. Category C includes those technologies that very the FE has experimented with, and what technologies seem likely are not worth disseminating. Although these are nec- to be successful (ie. which ones the farmer has adopted for essarily rather subjective evaluations, COSECHA does work cninuing use). Detailed descriptions of the successful tech- with a list of 19 criteria of an appropriate tcnlgy(uc nologies are made, writh a cost/analysis in each case compar- 1982) th at helps us ev I te each technl ogy. ing this technology to control plots. Data as to the elevation, Of the 82 original technologies developed, 39 have been amount of rain, total size of landholding, slope of the fields, classified as beigin CategoryAl Of these 39, the fo ng etc. are also taken. The farmer is also asked about other number pertained to each of the categories listed below: farmers' responses to, and adoption of, the technology. Insect control 15 COSECHA also inquired into such issues as what the farmer Fertilization 10 feels are his/her limiting factors, whether he/she would be Control of plant diseases 8 interested in wvorking with certain marketing ventures, Weed control 2 whether the farmer xvould be interested in joining a nation- Food preparation 2 wide organization of FE's and, if so, what the principal objec- Animal husbandry 2 tives of the organization should be. Plant propagation 1 Green manuring 1 The results to date: technologies discovered Soil conservation 1 Others 3 Fifty-two FEs from 10 of Honduras' 23 departments have been interviewed. These FEs include farmers who had been 45 originally trained by 17 different organizations, ranging from 12 NGOs to 3 governmental and semi-governmental organi- The total number of technologies is greater than 39, be- zations and 2 academic institutions. They also include 7 cause some of the technologies included aspects of two cat- women FEs, even though women in Central America, by and egories. large, are not heavily involved in extensive cropping (that is, It can be observed from this list, first of all, that FEs have outside the homestead garden) until after the harvest, nor chosen to experiment with a wide variety of different tech- had they been trained to be FEs by the programs in the 1980s nologies, including even some (e.g. food preparation) which and early 1990s. are not commonly included within the purview of agriculture. It is also interesting, however, that a few categories of technologies have been totally left out. Not a single FE ex- The concerned interviewer was Mateo Canas, co-author of this perimented with water harvesting or use, even though many ac an agronedmist and wasono Mateo Canas,rco-author experimeareas of Honduras have moderate to severe droughts;in much article, an agronomist and son of a farmer experimenter. 3 of southern Honduras, periodic and overall water shortages fruit trees in their tree nurseries, and found they could are without doubt the critical limiting factor in the produc- control aphids and other similar sucking insects fairly cas- tion systems of villager farmers. Furthermore, experience ily this way. with FEs in current programs provides major evidence that *Sugar water or slightly salty water, applied to the growing while they are very interested in experimenting with water tip of the plant, wvas tried successfullv as a wvayv of control- harvesting and more efficient wvater use, none of these FE's ling the corn borer. are included in the study because this COSECHA program is * Another FE noticed that leaf-cutter ants did not like lixing still in operation. near neem trees. By planting neem trees immediately It is also interesting to note that none of the technologies over several troublesome nests of leaf-cutter ants, he was have to do with the introduction of new crops (although the able to get rid of them (they moved their nest elsewhere). criteria used in the study, perhaps too restrictive, would * Foliar fertilizers were developed using either animal ma- eliminate the inclusion of the introduction of any crop that nure, mother of cacao leaves, the leaves of several comn- already existed anywhere else in Honduras) or the use of tree mon weeds, or even wood ashes (the last one also proving crops or agroforestry. First of all, it is very likely that some to be very useful in disease prevention). categories of technology (e.g. water harvesting) were never * One woman FE found that coffee pulp could be dried just experimented with because farmers either never thought by spreading it out to dry in the sun. Another FE found that any solutions were within their grasp, or simply because just mixing the wet coffee pulp with chiclken manure or working with such technologies had never occurred to them. sawdust would also dry it out. Once dried, the coffee pulp Thus, agricultural programs in the future should, perhaps, is an excellent fertilizer, one that previously just polluted discuss with farmers before they terminate their work in an the country's rivers. area, what sorts of possible future technologies they might - A solution of leaves of mother of cacao and eucaliptus vas experiment with. found to be very good as a fungicide for tree nurseries. Second, farmers may be aware of certain types of technolo- * One farmer found he could apparently disinfect the soil in gies they could work with, but may not perceive those tech- a nursery by cultivating the soil well and then covering it nologies as being of a very high priority for them. For in- with clear plastic so that it heated up thoroughly under the stance, in the case of tree crops, FEs are certainly aware that mid-day sun. they exist and are profitable, but may feel that the many * Both spraying crops with wvood ashes dissolved in water, as years one must wait before payback make these technologies well as placing wood ashes around the stems of plants, have of less priority than those wvith a quicker payback. This might been found to control a series of plant diseases, even vcr\ also be the case with agroforestry systems, although farmers treacherous ones like late blight (Phytophthera inJestans) in southern Honduras in the FAO program, which is empha- in tomatos and potatoes. sizing dispersed trees, are experimenting quite a lot with * A maize-based animal feed wvas made including leaves from various modifications of the dispersed tree system. the Tithonia and eggshells, thereby increasing egg produc- Of course, FEs probably did not experiment with new crops tion. because the crops, in order to be included within the'study, * One FE found that, at altitudes over 500m, grafting neem would have to be crops only grown outside Honduras, in material on to the locally available "paradise" tree root- which case the FEs would have had considerable difficulty stock resulted in much faster growvth of neem trees. learning about the crops or obtaining planting material. * Another FE found that by intercropping jackbeans (Canavalia ensiformis) among his cassava plants, he greatly reduced his weeding time and increased his cassava pro- Promising technologies developeddctvybyoe25prn. ductivity by over 25 percent. * Farmers observed that aphids died if dried out. They there- fore tried using wheat flour diluted in water to spray on 4 It should be noted that these technologies are in almost * Different organizations in Honduras have used different every way technologies that would be included under the la- techniques to train FEs. It was noticed, in the course of bel of low-input or ecological technologies, and in many this study, that organizations which had used the technique cases, in the category of totally organic technologies. They of maximizing success in farmers' experiments during the are also technologies that are highly appropriate for poorly first few experiments they did, had motivated far more capitalized villager farmers. By and large, they are extremely farmers to experiment in the future than did the remain- inexpensive (most require absolutely no cash output), they ing organizations. Achieving rapid, recognizable success use locally available resources, they do not increase risk, among farmer experimenters right from the start is thus an they provide fairly quick, recognizable returns, most of them important part of the total motivational process necessary are highly cost-efficient, and most of them are fairly widely for people to expend the effort to experiment frequently. applicable. The above list shows quite clearly that villager * In some cases, programs will not be able to find any already FEs not only can develop innovative technologies, but that validated, successful technology already being used by any the technologies they develop are highly appropriate for programs in a similar situation (ecologically, culturally, other small farmers. etc.). The program may have to experiment with several One of the most disappointing results of the studywas that technological possibilities before working with the farm- the technologies developed by small farmers had not been ers. Nevertheless, as time passes, fewer and fewer pro- disseminated very widely. In no case did FE-generated tech- grams find themselves in such a situation. nology spread to more than 10 other farmers through the * Thus, programs that have given a high priority to having exclusive efforts of local villagers. the PTD process start with future FEs selecting the tech- nologies from a long list of potentially useful technologies, might consider reducing the list to a rather short one of technologies already proven to provide rapid, recognizable * This study leaves little doubt as to whether villager FEs success in the vast majority of cases. can develop, on their own, both adaptive and basic tech- * The study provides major evidence that the collection, nologies that appear to have considerable potential for validation, and further dissemination of FE-developed farmers around the country, if not around the world. While technology may well be a very valuable activity for some these technologies still need to be further verified, their researchers and/or NGO's to become involved in. Devel- potential, according to established criteria of appropriate- opment agencies should therefore use their abilities to ness and their economic cost-benefit ratios, would seem to disseminate ideas around the world through various be quite high. printed media, information technology, international con- ferences such as the present one, and courses and work- shops to spread information about this possibility and its usefulness. This article was written by Roland Bunch, coordinator, and Mateo Canas, researcher, COSECHA, Honduras.