Participatory methods for action research figure prominently in the Centre's approach. Such research, conducted with partner organisations in selected rural communities, is our primary means of ensuring that valuable lessons learned about improving food security, building agro-enterprises, and managing natural resources are widely relevant and can be readily adapted and applied in other communities.

Particularly useful innovations and insights have come from Participatory Research for Improved Agroecosystem Management (PRIAM). Funded originally by the Rockefeller Foundation, this project was later incorporated into ECABREN. Working with national research teams, project staff helped form farmer research groups in Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Rwanda, and Uganda, focusing on variety improvement, soil management, and other tasks. Based on this experience, Kenyan scientists are now making farmer research groups and other participatory approaches a prominent feature of work done by their country's regional agricultural research centers.

The pioneering efforts of PRIAM have continued under a new alliance of the PRGA programme with AHI in cooperation with national institutions and NGOs. From this work we have derived important lessons about the selection, performance, and monitoring of farmer research groups-lessons that provide a basis for rapid spread of participatory methods in Africa.

Participatory research has value in many areas. CIAT and its partners in Africa have developed methods for application to participatory plant breeding, seed systems, integrated pest management, the improvement of soil fertility and natural resource management, and the dissemination or scaling out of technology. Sources of support for this work have included DFID, IDRC, and the Swiss government.

Meanwhile, CIAT has been consolidating its expertise with participatory research in Latin America, Africa, and Asia under a new Rural Innovation Institute (RII), based at our headquarters in Colombia. Centre scientists believe that farmer research and enterprise groups can serve as engines for local development, better enabling rural communities to combat poverty.

Under a related initiative, called "Enabling Rural Innovation," we are applying best practices in rural agroenterprise development, farmer experimentation, and natural resource management with various partner organisations, such as Africare in Uganda and the Traditional Irrigation and Environmental Development Programme (TIP) in Tanzania. Supported by the Belgian and Canadian governments, this work will help ensure that farmers gain, not just easier access to research products, but a stronger voice in their development.