Ecological Literacy - Agri-culture: Reconnecting People, Land and Nature - page 162

Farmers' groups for co-learning
The normal mode of agricultural research is to experiment under controlled
conditions on research stations, with the resulting technologies passed on
to farmers. In this process, farmers have little control, and many technologies
do not suit them, thus reducing the efficiency of research systems.
Farmers' organizations can, however, make a difference. They help research
institutions to become more responsive to local needs, and can create extra
local value by working on technology generation and adaptation. Self-
learning is vital for sustainability and, by experimenting themselves,
farmers increase their own awareness of what does and does not work.
There have been many innovations in both industrialized and developing
countries - though, generally, the number of groups tends to be much
smaller than in watershed, irrigation, forestry, micro-finance and pest
management programmes. 34
The Personal Benefits of Connectedness
Is there any evidence that new forms of connectivity with land that are
embedded in local organizations lead to personal change? Ultimately, the
fundamentals of the sustainability challenge require us to think differently.
I recall being told a story a decade ago by an Indian administrator that
captures this idea of the personal frontiers that must be crossed. This
administrator had seen the effectiveness of participatory methods else-
where, and decided to test them with his own staff. He divided them
into two cohorts - those who would receive new training in participatory
approaches, and those who would continue to work with local people in
the old top-down fashion. He recounted how this experiment had been
so effective in the workplace that he had inadvertently found himself
treating his driver and his family differently. Once crossed, these boundaries
are never revisited.
Gregory Peter and colleagues from Iowa State University, and the
sustainable agriculture organization Practical Farmers of Iowa, present
compelling evidence of the nature of personal change within households.
In most Iowan farms, they say:
The division of labour still largely follows gender lines: men do most of the outdoor
work, and women support the men's hectic schedules by providing meals at odd hours,
doing chores, running the household, going out for tractor parts, and working off-
farm jobs - not to mention taking care of the children.