Browsing by Autor "Graham Thiele"

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Creating linkages: lessons from agricultural research and extension liaison in lowland Bolivia
(Taylor & Francis, 1998) Graham Thiele; Jonathan Wadsworth; Rodrigo Palomo Vélez
Abstract An effective model for linking agricultural research and extension using a liaison unit has been developed in lowland Bolivia. The liaison unit is based within the Santa Cruz agricultural research centre and works with a range of Intermediate Users (IUs), including Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), rural development projects and producer associations, which carry out extension. The unit's functions have evolved over time, leading to the development of a wide range of linkage mechanisms with IUs including rapid rural appraisals, zonal meetings, recommendation workshops, joint verification trials and publications targeted at extensionists. Evidence from case studies suggests that the demand pull on research has increased and that more appropriate technology is reaching extensionists as a result. Similar models could be used in other countries where formal extension is weak or absent.
FARMER INVOLVEMENT IN SELECTING NEW VARIETIES: POTATOES IN BOLIVIA
(Cambridge University Press, 1997) Graham Thiele; G.E. Gardner; Robert J. Tórrez; Julio Gabriel
The strengths and weaknesses of the evolving techniques used by researchers in Bolivia to evaluate potato germplasm with farmers are assessed. When detailed knowledge of farmers' criteria is required, questionnaires or forms are most appropriate; otherwise techniques from participatory rural appraisal could be used. Initially, when evaluating large numbers of clones, scientists' and farmers' choices tended to coincide, although subsequently they diverged. This suggested that it may be more efficient to involve farmers later in the selection process, ensuring that an interesting amount of diversity still exists, and work to improve breeders' knowledge of farmers' criteria. Integration between social scientists and breeders was less than ideal at the start of the study, reducing the impact of farmer evaluations on the breeding programme.
Human and Technical Dimensions of Potato Integrated Pest Management Using Farmer Field Schools: International Potato Center and Partners’ Experience With Potato Late Blight Management
(Oxford University Press, 2019) Oscar Ortiz; Rebecca Nelson; O. M. Olanya; Graham Thiele; Ricardo Orrego; Willy Pradel; Rogers Kakuhenzire; Gebremedhin Woldegiorgis; Julio Gabriel; Juan Vallejo
Abstract In the 1990s, the integrated pest management (IPM) team for potato late blight (IPM-late blight) at the International Potato Center (CIP) began to address the management of this complex potato disease by combining crop protection with social and behavioral sciences. Since the early 2000s, the team has worked with research and development organizations in countries in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa, and South America to develop farmer discovery-based learning methods using farmer field schools (FFS). The principles of late blight control were more visible and understood by farmers when they could test options for managing late blight, particularly new potato clones with resistance to the disease, for themselves. CIP and partners have since adapted an approach combining FFS and participatory research to facilitate farmers’ access to information, knowledge, and technologies. Several manuals to implement FFS-IPM-late blight with farmers were subsequently developed. Results indicated that farmers using this approach learned new knowledge, assessed new potato clones, and changed crop management practices. Hence farmers realized a 32% average increase in potato productivity and income in Peru; similar changes occurred in other countries. The participatory research and training approach had a significant impact beyond IPM-late blight. In Peru and Bolivia, for example, more than 2,000 FFS were implemented between 2005 and 2012 on IPM for potato, other crops (coffee, cocoa, fruit trees), and livestock. In Uganda and Ethiopia, the experience expanded to potato seed management with the formation of seed cooperatives. Lessons have been drawn from this experience.
Informal potato seed systems in the Andes: Why are they important and what should we do with them?
(Elsevier BV, 1999) Graham Thiele
Knowledge management for pro-poor innovation: the Papa Andina case
(Taylor & Francis, 2011) Douglas Horton; Graham Thiele; Rolando Oros; Jorge Andrade-Piedra; Claudio Ríos-Velasco; A. Devaux
Papa Andina began as a regional research program focusing on the Andean potato sectors of Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru, but later shifted its focus to facilitating pro-poor innovation. To accomplish this shift, a number of approaches were developed to foster innovation, by facilitating mutual learning and collective action among individuals and groups with differing, often conflicting, interests. This paper explains why and how Papa Andina shifted its focus from conducting research to facilitating innovation, and describes two approaches that Papa Andina developed to facilitate mutual learning and innovation: the ‘participatory market chain approach’ and ‘horizontal evaluation’. Differing local circumstances and beliefs shaped the work of local teams, and rivalry among the teams stimulated creativity and innovation. Participatory evaluations helped individuals recognize and appreciate differences and build shared knowledge across the teams. After describing the case, the paper discusses the implications for knowledge management and innovation theory, and for the potential use of Papa Andina's approaches in other settings.
Multi-stakeholder platforms for linking small farmers to value chains: evidence from the Andes
(Taylor & Francis, 2011) Graham Thiele; A. Devaux; Iván Reinoso; Hernán Pico; Fabián Montesdeoca; Manuel Pumisacho; Jorge Andrade-Piedra; Claudio Ríos-Velasco; Paola Flores; Raúl Esprella
Value chains linked to urban markets and agro-industry present new opportunities for adding value and raising rural incomes. Small farmers, who produce small volumes, struggle to enter these markets. A lack of trust among value chain actors increases transaction costs and short-circuits innovation. This paper explores how multi-stakeholder platforms have been used to address these problems in potato-based value chains in Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador. It uses the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework to understand how platforms work. Differences in characteristics of the value chains, the participating actors and institutional arrangements have led to the emergence of two types of platforms. The first type brings traders, processors, supermarkets and others together with farmer associations and research and development (R&D) organizations to foster the development of new market opportunities through commercial, institutional and technological innovation. The second type is structured around geographically delimited supply areas, meshing farmers and service providers to address market governance issues in assuring volumes, meeting quality and timeliness constraints and empowering farmers. Evidence from these cases indicates that platforms that bring stakeholders together around value chains can result in new products, processes, norms and behaviours that benefit poor farmers, which could not have been achieved otherwise.
Participatory Research (PR) at CIP with Potato Farming Systems in the Andes: Evolution and Prospects
(2019) Oscar Ortiz; Graham Thiele; Rebecca Nelson; Jeffery W. Bentley
Participatory Research (PR) at the International Potato Center (CIP) included seven major experiences. (1) Farmer-back-to-farmer in the 1970s pioneered the idea of working with farmers to identify their needs, propose solutions, and explain the underlying scientific concepts. The ideas were of great influence at CIP and beyond. (2) With integrated pest management (IPM) pilot areas in the early 1990s, entomologists and social scientists developed technologies with farmers in Peru and other countries to control insect pests. Households that adopted just some of the techniques enjoyed high economic returns, and this showed the importance of IPM specialists, social scientists, and farmers working together. (3) Farmer field school (FFS) was adapted for participatory research in the 2000s. Farmers learned that late blight was caused by a microorganism, while testing resistant varieties and fungicides, and researchers took into account more specifically farmer knowledge for training and PR purposes. (4) CIP used participatory varietal selection (PVS) after 2004 to form consortia of farmers, local government, NGOs, and research. Farmers' preferences were disaggregated by gender. Selection criteria of other market actors were included, and new varieties were released, showing the importance of combining farmer and researcher knowledge in this process. (5) Participatory approaches to develop native potato variety value chains. After 2000, CIP used the PMCA (participatory market chain analysis) and stakeholder platforms to improve smallholders' access to markets. PMCA brought farmers and other market actors together to form stakeholder platforms which created market innovations, including
Reviews
(Oxford University Press, 1984) Graham Thiele
Journal Article Reviews Get access LAND FOR PEOPLE: LAND TENURE AND THE VERY POOR, Claire Whittemore, 1981, Oxford, Oxfam Public Affairs Unit, pp. 55, £1.30. THE THEORY AND PRACTICE OF INTEGRATED RURAL DEVELOPMENT, John J. Macdonald, 1981, Manchester Monograph 19, University of Manchester, Department of Adult and Higher Education, pp. 124. Graham Thiele Graham Thiele Mission Britanica Cordecruz, Santa Cruz de la-SierraBolivia Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Community Development Journal, Volume 19, Issue 3, July 1984, Pages 198–200, https://doi.org/10.1093/cdj/19.3.198 Published: 01 July 1984
The Displacement of Peasant Settlers in the Amazon: The Case of Santa Cruz, Bolivia
(Society for Applied Anthropology, 1995) Graham Thiele
Unlike peasants in many other parts of the Amazon, those settling on much of the frontier in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, have shown little tendency to be displaced by large farmers. This article attempts to identify the reasons for the persistence of peasant settlement. These include ambiguities in state support for the large farmer, the lack of dynamism of commercial agriculture, different spatial patterns of expansion of peasant and commercial farming, the occupation of land by peasant farmers in legally recognised agrarian unions and the Andeanisation of the frontier with the extension of a distinctive social and economic space originating in highland Bolivia into the lowland environment.
The Effects of Structural Adjustment on Deforestation and Forest Degradation in Lowland Bolivia
(Elsevier BV, 1999) David Kaimowitz; Graham Thiele; Pablo Pacheco
Unspoken demands for farm technology
(Taylor & Francis, 2007) Jeffery W. Bentley; Claudio Ríos-Velasco; F.. M. Rodriguez; Rolando Oros; Rubén Botello; M. Webb; A. Devaux; Graham Thiele
For three years in Bolivia (2002–2005) the INNOVA Project finished researching several technologies for sustainable agriculture, started by earlier DFID-funded projects. Before INNOVA started critics suggested that these technologies should be discarded in favour of a demand survey. Instead, INNOVA kept the existing technologies, but judged the demand for them with several methods (CIAL, sondeo technology fair, and others). INNOVA found that there was demand for some of the technologies, but that a survey would have missed much of the demand, which is implicit. That is, people are not initially aware of all their problems or of all the possible solutions. Over the years, farmers made more specific, sophisticated demands on the technologies, which evolved as a result. Demand and supply of farm technology are like two sides of an unfolding conversation.