Abstract
In the early 1980s the Zambian Ministry of Agriculture formed provincially-based Farming Systems Research (FSR) units called Adaptive Research Planning Teams (ARPTs). By locating these teams in the Research Branch, Zambia assumed exemplary status with regard to successful institutionalisation of FSR within an existing national agricultural research set-up. While institutionalising FSR within government structures was viewed as advantageous for a number of reasons, some compromises had to be made in terms of flexibility and accountability to local people. Following a description of frustrations associated with a particular development interface (that between the ARPT – Northern Province and local communities), I explore some of the more general institutionalised factors hindering truly participatory development. The paper concludes with a few recommendations for working within the constraints of existing development institutions and priorities while better supporting the aspirations of local communities.
Patrick Sikana joined the Tropical Soil Biology and Fertility Programme (TSBF) as its Social Science Officer in 1998 but was killed in the crash of Kenya Airways flight 431 on the evening of January 30th, 2000, off the coast of Abidjan en route to Lagos. This paper originated as an invited presentation at IDRC (the International Development Research Centre) in Canada (Sikana, 1995) that Sikana had revised in 2000 for publication in the form reproduced here. Next of kin could not be traced or contacted as potential copyright holders. If notified, Springer will be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity.
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Acknowledgments
The promising career of Patrick Sikana was cut tragically short. His dedication to rural people and to overcoming the barriers between scientists and the grassroots communities they work with was a true inspiration to those who knew him or his work, including the co-editors of this volume. In choosing to include this up to now unpublished paper, we wanted to honour Sikana’s legacy of interdisciplinarity by ensuring that his challenge to the disciplinary and institutional status quo of development practice and agricultural research was not lost. Although Sikana had revised this paper to its present form shortly before his death, the editors added a few more recent bibliographic references, and accept full responsibilities for any errors, omissions, or inaccuracies arising from its publication.
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Sikana, P. (2010). Who Is Fooling Whom? Participation, Power, and Interest in Rural Development. In: German, L., Ramisch, J., Verma, R. (eds) Beyond the Biophysical. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8826-0_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8826-0_13
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