72 The Global Food System
of viable groups, but these need to be based on interests that are broader than those
of the usual LEIT project. Groups offer efficiencies in information transmission,
form a basis for social learning and can help foster environmental consciousness.
Much agricultural technology requires hands-on learning, and groups can facili-
tate access to these opportunities. In addition, group action is usually the most
effective way for farmers to draw on external resources. Rather than serving as
gatekeepers for access to agricultural research stations, projects should strive to
make farmers understand that public research belongs to them and that a visit to
an experiment station to seek attention to pressing problems is a right rather than
a brokered privilege. Similarly, developing strong, broad-based farmer organiza-
tions that can exert pressure for more effective public extension may have higher
payoffs than small-group activity in response to a brief donor project.
Current project-driven group formation related to LEIT is based on much too
narrow a base, sometimes the development of a single technology. Project activity
is an inefficient way of making up for deficiencies in basic education, information
and markets. Farmer organizations will only be sustainable if they address major
issues of concern to their members. Access to technology may be one of these, but
it is unlikely that technology generation, on its own, will be the basis of a signifi-
cant growth in viable organizations; it is less likely that specific technological issues
(IPM, soil erosion control) would provide such a basis. Organizations need to offer
as many advantages to farmers as possible in order to elicit commitment and offer
opportunities for varying levels of participation. The transaction costs of group
formation are considerable, and there is no sense in repeatedly making such invest-
ments for a series of short-term, isolated interests. The various initiatives with
resources and rationales for group activities related to LEIT need to join forces in
order to make a contribution to building sustainable local institutions.
Summary
LEIT includes an exceptionally wide array of technologies that challenge any
attempt at generalization. Nevertheless, this study of three large and well-managed
projects, combined with an extensive review of the literature, provides a basis from
which to offer some fairly broad, but hopefully robust, conclusions. There are
many instances where farmers are able to take advantage of LEIT. The technolo-
gies help farmers become more productive and conserve resources, and these tech-
niques deserve further investment in research, development and promotion.
However, the use of LEIT is much less widespread than some observers would
hope. In addition, LEIT does not necessarily behave the way that either its sup-
porters or sceptics maintain. On the one hand, LEIT is certainly not the rudimen-
tary, hopelessly labour-demanding technology that some critics assume. On the
other hand, despite its focus on self-sufficiency and its concern for marginal farm-
ing conditions, most LEIT is not particularly targeted to the poorer members of