Farmers Innovations, call for papers

ILEIA is looking for relevant articles as well as information on networking activities, publications and web sites for coming issues of LEISA Magazine:

Issue 22.3 September 2006: BUILDING KNOWLEDGE THROUGH FARMER INNOVATION AND PARTICIPATION
Research and development in agriculture is mostly led by institutions and researchers. To become more relevant and participatory they try to involve farmers in their research processes. However, it is still the demands of the scientific research process that guides the work, and more often than not, the subject of the research is decided upon beforehand.
Farmers, on the other hand, are observing, adapting, experimenting and innovating as part of their daily work and in response to changing circumstances. As a result they have for centuries been responsible for the development of landraces and local practices well suited to their environmental and social context. Today however, the circumstances are changing faster than ever before, the competition for resources is increasing and slow, local adaptation is not enough to keep pace with these changes.

New knowledge is urgently needed to support small scale farmers. However, the scientific research results produced by research institutions mostly has very little to offer small scale farmers in their complex environments.

• How can the gap between research methodologies and farmer's realities be narrowed?
• Is it possible to get researchers or organisations interested and involved in farmer's realities?
• Can new understandings and information through a two-way interaction process between different knowledge systems such as local knowledge and scientific knowledge lead to more relevant research?
• What contributions has this interaction made to generating new understandings about LEISA?

Alternatively, farmers own networks or social groups are another way of validating innovations in a specific location. This issue will look at examples of innovation, adaptation and effective collaborations or linkages for the generation of knowledge. Editor: Karen Hampson, email K.Hampson@ileia.nl Deadline for submission of articles: 1 June 2006.

You are invited to contribute to this issue with articles (about 800, 1600 or 2400 words + 2-3 illustrations and references), suggest possible authors, and send us information about publications, training courses, meetings and websites. Editorial support is provided by ILEIA. Authors of published articles are entitled to a standard fee of USD 75,-.

For authors guide see http://www.leisa.info/index.php?url=show-blob-html.tpl&p[o_id]=8753&p[a_id]=237&p[a_seq]=0
For more coming issues see http://www.leisa.info/index.php?url=show-blob-html.tpl&p[o_id]=8754&p[a_id]=237&p[a_seq]=0

NEW LEISA MAGAZINE REGIONAL EDITIONS AVAILABLE ONLINE