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Research and reality
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Dear Readers

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ILEIA Newsletter • 11 nº 2 • July 1995

Dear Readers

The editors

Do today's research and development methods fit farmer's complex reality and the need for sustainability? Which methods can better deal with, for example, the increasing diversity of farming conditions, interactions between micro and macro scales, different stakeholders and economic assessment? Or do we need more fundamental decisions about values and objectives to reorient agriculture? Insight in the nature of sustainability and its demands has to increase, but how? Our ignorance and scientific uncertainty about the complexities of sustainable agriculture make that participatory learning as well as scientific rigour are needed.

This issue presents examples of learning processes in which scientists and farmers try to match participatory with scientific methods and try to dig deeper in the methodological and practical consequences of ecological and cultural diversity and sustainability. These issues pose huge challenges to researchers and development workers. Clearly the articles in this Newsletter are not the final words to be said on this. We look forward to receiving your experiences and opinions on these matters.

Our challenge for this issue was to write about these complex issues in understandable words. Research, experimentation and innovation are as much a concern of farmers and development workers as they are of scientists. If the expertise of all stakeholders is to be used, communication has to be improved. Please let us know if you think we have not succeeded.

Something that really worries us is the decrease in the number of articles written by non-Western authors. Are we on the wrong track, are we getting too much involved in the academic debate? Or do we use the wrong channels to request articles? We simply cannot believe that the 6000 non-Western readers of the ILEIA Newsletter have nothing to contribute to the exchange of practical experiences on development of sustainable agriculture. Do not hesitate but write, the ILEIA Newsletter depends on you!

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