Learning by doing: a participatory methodology for systematization of experiments with agroforestry systems, with an example of its application

Abstract

Participatory research methods have helped scientists to understand how farmers experiment and to seek partnerships with farmers in developing technologies with enhanced relevance and adoption. This paper reports on the development of a participatory methodology to systematize long-term experimentation with agroforestry systems carried out in a hotspot of biodiversity by non-governmental organizations and local farmers. A methodological guide for systematization and techniques used for Participatory Rural Appraisal formed the basis of our work. We propose an analytical framework that recognizes systems of reflexive and learning interactions, in order to make the learned lessons explicit. At the process level, the main lessons and recommendations are as follows. It is important to establish partnerships to conduct innovative and complex experimentation with agroforest. Participatory systematization allows us to improve the methodological aspects of design, implementation and management of on-farm participatory experimentation. It also serves to synthesize the main findings and to extract lessons from agroforestry systems experiments. It fosters the technical improvement of agroforestry systems. It creates possibilities for reflection on agroforestry systems by farmers, extensionists and researchers, as well as their learning with respect to management of such systems. The findings are placed in the context of current theory on participatory experimentation in agriculture. Extractive and interactive approaches help to produce rich insights of mutual interest through collaboration by identifying local, regional and global convergences, complementarities, and conflicts of interest; which affect the advance of new eco-friendly technologies, to both improve the livelihoods and to reverse biodiversity loss and environmental degradation.

Understanding Farm Diversity to Promote Agroecological Transitions

“…The participatory typology was informed by three workshops, one in each municipality ( Figure 2). These workshops were embedded in a long-term action research process in the Zona da Mata region [38]. The workshops involved young to old local farmers and representatives of local organisations.…”

“…To our knowledge, this is the first study that developed farm typologies specifically to understand and analyse a long-term process of agroecological transition, focusing on changes at farm level. Following previous research in the region [12,38], we used participatory methods to interest farmers to participate in a collective process of co-creation of knowledge [31]. This was also important to generate a collective understanding of agroecology.…”

Exploring the scaling-up of sustainable land management in the Central highlands of Ethiopia

“…The overall research design of this study is a case study approach consisting of quantitative and qualitative surveys based on a participatory learning process. Participatory research is important to understand farmers' experiences with SLM technologies (Sturdy et al, 2008;de Souza et al, 2012). This method has been widely used by many scholars to identify locally available SLM technologies with their consecutive approaches (e.g.…”

“…This method integrates local farmers' knowledge and scientific knowledge when adapting a training approach at the grass root level. The use of a participatory learning approach is an important tool to better understand farmers and their practices in the field (Sturdy et al, 2008;de Souza et al, 2012;Kraaijvanger & Witteveen, 2018b). It provides an opportunity to understand how knowledge, experience and learning is exchanged among farmers, and ultimately contributes to foster a better-grounded bottom-up decision-making approach (Raymond et al, 2010;Bautista et al, 2017).…”

Sistematização de experiências agroecológicas: um novo olhar a partir do protagonismo das comunidades rurais

“…A partir da construção de ambientes acolhedores e lúdicos, compostos por elementos da realidade em sua dimensão estéti-ca, propõe-se suscitar problematizações e reflexões acerca do tema que se pretende trabalhar (17). A caminhada da sistematização de experiências, no contexto das experiências agroecológicas, vem reafirmando a importância, historicamente destacada pela educação popular, para a qual o simbólico é parte integrante dos processos de aprendizagem ao despertar emoções, sentimentos e provocar significações fundamentais.…”