I totally agree with you Funke Cofie, these NGOs, when they get funding, they just get a student whose main objective is to get his/her degree at the expense of the community. papers will be published but a year after the project farmers revert back too what their conventional methods. Participatory approaches are the ones that work, whereby you engage farmers from the start to the end of the project. Normally in your first survey, farmers exaggerate their situation or crisis or they can be mean with their information simply because you are sort of a 'stranger' to them, so they won't divulge as much information to you. If you interact more frequently they tend to open up and provide genuine answers.
The other thing is politics. Most politicians do not respect science. So there is need to also take them on board in workshops and discussions so that they can also appreciate our work as researchers.
I totally agree with you Funke Cofie, these NGOs, when they get funding, they just get a student whose main objective is to get his/her degree at the expense of the community. papers will be published but a year after the project farmers revert back too what their conventional methods. Participatory approaches are the ones that work, whereby you engage farmers from the start to the end of the project. Normally in your first survey, farmers exaggerate their situation or crisis or they can be mean with their information simply because you are sort of a 'stranger' to them, so they won't divulge as much information to you. If you interact more frequently they tend to open up and provide genuine answers.
The other thing is politics. Most politicians do not respect science. So there is need to also take them on board in workshops and discussions so that they can also appreciate our work as researchers.