METHODOLOGICAL CHALLENGES IN ANALYZING THE
HOUSEHOLD IN FARMING SYSTEMS RESEARCH: INTRA-HOUSEHOLD RESOURCE ALLOCATION
Catherine McKee
Despite the centrality of the farm household to the FSR process, there has been remarkably little attention by FSR theorists and practitioners to that unit. Yet, as Norman and others have recognized, the focus of FSR on adoption and adaptation of technology requires attention to the "human element" and the need to view technology from the clients' viewpoint.
What happens when a new agricultural technology Is Introduced? Within the smallholder sector, it is the farm household that must decide, in the final analysis, whether and how to adopt the innovation. Depending on the nature of the proposed changes In inputs and practices, the household and members therein Must determine how to reallocate the land, labor, and capital resources currently at its disposal, or how to mobilize new resources. Just as we have recognized the necessity of looking at differences between households, in order to assess the productivity and equity effects of agricultural technologies, so must we
look witibn the household at the variables and interactions which determine the household's response to new production opportunities. A closely related corollary is that the large, jifl.=-household variations we have observed in willingness and ability to adopt new technologies may be explained in substantial part by examining more closely these In -household relationships.
Improved understanding of these variables can contribute to the design of new agricultural technologies more appropriate to the needs and circumstances of particularly disadvantaged households. It can also
increase our ability to address some of the most perplexing questions about the often tenuous relationships between technological change, on the one hand, and actual improvements in the welfare and productivity of the Intended beneficiaries, on the other. The basic advantage of
farming systems research (FSR) is commonly agreed to be Its potential to
make research relevant to resource-poor farming households, to develop technologies appropriate to their needs, and to make diffusion of improved technologies quicker and more complete.
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