Learning from Participatory Research on Sustainable Farming

Project Status: Completed (See Final Report Summary)
Type of Project: Scoping Study
Principal Investigator: Dr Fergus Lyon, Middlesex University (Email)
Website

Objectives

How do organic farmers innovate, learn and develop farming systems that are best suited for their land and the context of their farming enterprise?
• How do farmers balance the multiple functions and objectives of their farming enterprise (food production, ecological services, profit generation etc)?
• What are the forms of experimental learning, farmers’ own research and adaption to local agro-ecosystems?

How do research scientists carry out whole farm agro-ecosystems research?
• What research methods are most suitable for research on agro-ecosystems?
• How can scientific data from different scales (e.g. Test-tube, plot, ecological surveys) be brought together to identify more general trends at the system level?
• How can social science be integrated with other scientific disciplines for the development of sustainable agro-ecological systems in organic farming?

How can farmers and researchers collaborate?
• How have projects managed to overcome separate disciplinary traditions of information gathering, research methodologies and language to work together to achieve results?
• How can agricultural scientists implement statistically rigorous methodologies within the diversity and complexity of on-farm farmer participatory research?

Summary:

This project draws on previous research from a range of disciplines including applied biology, agriculture, geography, management studies and sociology of science. The aim is to understand the process of innovation and learning by farming enterprises and research on whole farm systems, by scientists examining examples of successful interaction in order to identify those factors that encourage collaboration between farmers and scientists. The project will contribute to theoretical and conceptual discussions in each of the disciplines outlined above, while at the same time examining how different disciplines can work together to understand how sustainable farming systems can operate.

With regard to sociology and management studies, the project will contribute to an understanding of the processes of learning and knowledge creation in agricultural and food businesses. It will also explore the processes by which collaboration, alliances and trust are built up between different stakeholders. With regard to biological, natural and agricultural sciences, the project will explore how rigorous scientific method can be adapted to the complexity of whole farm systems. A key aspect will be examining the challenge of experimental design on field or farm scale plots, and the ability to use statistical analysis to draw conclusions.

Working Papers/Briefing Papers

Lyon, F., Clarke, S., Harris, F., Wolfe, M. and Gibbon, D. (2005) Learning and research for sustainable agro-ecosystems by both farmers and scientists.
http://www.mdx.ac.uk/www/ceedr/ESRC/ESRC RELU 30-1-05.pdf

Conference Papers and Presentations

Lyon, F., Harris, F. and Gibbon, D. (2005) "Collaborative approaches to land use research: farmer participation, systems approaches and interdisciplinarity" Presentation to RELU Workshop ‘People and the Rural Environment: Scoping the Research Agenda’ 18 May, York.
http://www.relu.ac.uk/events/WorkshopMay05/2ALyon.pdf

Lyon, F. (2005) "Farm-centred learning in rural development" Presentation to RELU conference Rural Economy and Land Use: The Challenge for Research 19-21 Jan 2005, Birmingham.
http://www.relu.ac.uk/events/Jan05/Presentations/p4.5.Lyon.PDF

Lyon, F. (2006) “Stakeholders and relationships in knowledge production: researchers, brokers and farmers” Presentation to Rural Economy and Land Use: Enabling Knowledge Exchange, University of Manchester , 18-20 January.