| Securing profitable agricultural production for impoverished small-scale farmers is crucial for economic growth in developing countries. A participatory methodology, like the Local Agricultural Research Committee model, blends effectively with constraints field trials while supporting other aspects of development, like better access to information, skills training and access to loans. Research was focused on fertilizer and common bean variety to identify possible increases in bean production, and weed control to examine savings from field labor to test the effect of traditional versus recommended inputs for bean production in on-farm trials. In 2003, four full factorial (four replications) and five supplemental trials (no replication) were sown in a broadly agroecologically representative area of Honduras called Los Limones (Moroceli). Factorial experiment results indicate that increased fertilizer causes a significant increase in yield in some cases; the supplemental experiments showed with 85% certainty that the recommended package of improved variety, increased fertilizer and herbicide increased yield. In 2004, the factorial experiment was repeated without herbicide, with an additional traditional variety and with two additional fertilizer levels on seven farms (three farms with three replicates, two farms with one replicate). Due to terminal drought, one early maturing traditional variety out-yielded the improved variety in one case, and in an analysis using data from all five plots. Fertilizer had no effect on yield under these conditions. On a field day in 2005, farmers misidentified the worst-producing plot in one case, and misattributed the best production to the local variety Marciano three times. Misidentifications of bean variety production were likely due to variety biases that farmers had based on observations in other contexts. A similar experiment was performed in another community called Lavanderos (Moroceli) at a higher altitude. Results from one farm indicate a slight decrease in yield after the midseason application of urea fertilizer; and a much higher yield from the traditional variety compared to the two improved varieties. Surveys revealed that farmers usually save seed, and one in ten farmers report seed-borne anthracnose as important diseases in 2003 and 2004, with similar numbers for mosaic viruses, so farmers likely underestimate the importance of seed quality. Planting densities varied, and many farmers would benefit from a higher planting density, up to 60 kg/ha. The Local Agricultural Research Committee model was an effective way to test new technologies and disseminate new production information. |
