Farming systems research: Twelve lessons from the Mantaro Valley Project

Abstract

From 1977 to 1980, the International Potato Center (CIP), in collaboration with Peru's Ministry of Agriculture and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), conducted a series of farm-level surveys and experiments in the Mantaro Valley of Highland Peru. The lessons of the Mantaro Valley Project can be summarized in 12 points:

• 1.

  1. Ecological conditions and farm type strongly influenced farmers' production methods and technological requirements.

• 2.

  2. Small farmers were eager to improve their methods.

• 3.

  3. The recommended ‘technological packages’ had many deficiencies.

• 4.

  4. Technical knowledge was available to solve some farmers' problems.

• 5.

  5. Most technologies could not be directly ‘transferred’ to farmers, but needed to be tailored to their specific needs.

• 6.

  6. Scientific specialization presented several barriers to interdisciplinary research.

• 7.

  7. The project was costly, in terms of operating capital.

• 8.

  8. The project's most valuable result was an institutional innovation, not an impact on potato production.

• 9.

  9. Informal surveys and simple on-farm trials had many advantages over more ‘respectable’, formal methods.

• 10.

  10. Anthropologists played many useful roles.

• 11.

  11. Many results of the on-farm research could be extrapolated.

• 12.

  12. On-farm research was useful for identifying and solving production problems within existing systems, but not for designing entirely new systems.