Participatory Learning and Action Research (PLAR)

Spearheaded by the WARDA and the national agricultural extension service in Côte d'Ivoire to support rice-based technological change, Participatory Learning and Action Research (PLAR) is fast becoming a source of immense empowerment for farmers. The result is not only a tangible increase in agricultural productivity, but also more self-reliant farmers and a more sustainable farming system. 

In the Bamoro and Lokakpli areas of Côte d'Ivoire, PLAR has been able to kindle the minds and hearts of farmers, helping them eventually to transform their lives. As a result, in the first year itself, the rice yields of those farmers who adopted the integrated crop management (ICM) technologies thanks to PLAR increased by about 0.7 tonnes per hectare. 

Farmers from these areas are now forming rural knowledge centers and the trained farmers not only impart technologies, but also key elements of scientific thinking as well as the advantages of community action, to neighboring villages through farmer-to-farmer learning. 

Take, for example, Kouame Dembele from Bamoro who has become a trainer of farmers thanks to PLAR. His training is so valued by other farmers that they are even willing to pay him 2000 FCFA (about €3) per session -- a relatively significant amount for farmers in the region.

The PLAR approach is based on the principle of a bottom-up social learning process. As part of an overall effort to promote technological change by improving farmers' capacity to exchange insights, knowledge, experiences and practices, PLAR helps to stimulate people to find solutions for themselves. 

A rudimentary geographic information system (GIS)-type cropping calendar, for example, constructed by farmers themselves, gives them a global picture of all the development stages of the rice plant helping them to better plan their agricultural operations. In the Bamoro region for instance, the cropping calendar prompted farmers to improve the water management in their rice farms through concerted action. 

Farmers in this area generally transplant late, as 'tall' seedlings are needed because of the risk of flooding. But a visual overlay of the cropping calendar on the development process of the rice plant showed them that when rice plants are transplanted late, their tillering capacity is almost finished. The only way out was to improve water management of their rice farms by digging out the drainage canal so that water could be better drained. This would allow them to transplant earlier and get better yields from good tillering. And that is exactly what they did. 

The PLAR learning tools at present form the basis of 30 modules covering all aspects of Integrated Crop Management (ICM), such as land preparation, transplanting, weeds and pests management as well as harvest and post-harvest issues and marketing. These modules constitute the curriculum for farmer learning on ICM. 

Forty researchers, extension agents and NGOs from Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Togo and Senegal, have been trained at a workshop to use the PLAR-ICM approach. Four farmers from Bamoro and Lokapli also attended the workshop, one of whom is Dembele, now a farmer-trainer.

The methodology is being extended to six more countries. Four farming communities near the initial PLAR program area have also asked WARDA to implement the program for them.