Deepening the basis of rural resource management: Learning processes and decision support

Farmers in many parts of the world are confronting changes for which their experience provides limited guidance. Drawing on cases from a diverse set of resource management contexts, primarily in developing countries, this paper examines common features of the methods R&D workers are developing with farmers to enable them to adjust their decision-making and refine their management. These methods typically comprise a learning process and a decision aid that help farmers to understand aspects of the systems they manage that are not readily apparent. Often ill–adapted initially to farmers' needs, the methods evolve through the interaction of farmers and R&D workers towards greater relevance, transparancy, flexibility and usability. The effectiveness and impact of these methods have been only sporadically assessed and important facets remain poorly described. A more informed use of learning approaches and decision support aids, supported by theory and evaluated experience, would enable Rand to better support farmers confronting rapid change. Some of the institutional obstacles and opportunities that will affect the wider prospects for such approaches are outlined in the paper's final section.