promising alternatives emerge during the trials at the farm level
 -where farmers and researchers interact directly. Similarly, testing
 by farmers may mark the beginning of extension activities.

5. Attributes of the FSAR

 5.1 The objectives of the farmer (farming family) are directly incorporated
 into the research process. The farmer is the central unit in the
 research process, being directly involved in the description, testing
 and extension stages. Involvement of farmers gives them a "voice"
 in the research process and ensures the use of evaluation criteria
 relevant to them. For the farming family, evaluation criteria for
 the adoption of improved practices can be divided into the following
 groups, although it should be emphasized they are not mutually
 exclusive:

 (a) Necessary conditions determine whether the farmer would be able
 to adopt the improved practices. Such conditions would include
 technical feasibility, social acceptability, and compatibility
 with external institutions-that is support systems.
 (b) Sufficient conditions determine whether the farmer would
 be willing to adopt the improved practices. Obviously the
 necessary conditions will be influential in determining this
 willingness. Sufficient conditions will include compatibility
 of the improved practices with the goal(s)-self-sufficiency,
 profit maximization, etc.-of the farming family and of the
 farming system they currently practice.

 5.2 Efforts are made to incorporate community and societal needs into
 the FSR process by trying to ensure a convergence between private
 (usually short-run) and societal (usually longer run) interests.
 Examples of possible conflicts would be where satisfying short-run
 needs of individual farming families would result in long-run
 societal costs in terms of degradation of the natural resource base,
 increased inequalities in welfare distribution, etc. It is necessary
 to develop improved strategies that will avoid such conflicts.

 5.3 The FSR approach, by including farmers, taps the pool of knowledge in
 the society and enables research and hence developmental strategies
 to build upon the good points of the present farming systems, while
 at the same time minimizing the time spent in "rediscovering the
 wheel"-for example, the value of intercropping.

 5.4 FSR recognizes the locational specificity of the technical and human
 (exogenous and endogenous factors) elements. This requires
 disaggregating farming families into homogenous subgroups (recom-
 mendation domains) and developing strategies appropriate to each.
 Farming families in a particular subgroup will tend to have similar
 farming activities and to include similar social customs, similar
 access to support systems, comparable marketing opportunities, and
 similar present technology and resource endowment.

 5.5 The whole Farm perspective of FSR compels the adoption of an integrative
 function which increases the potential for exploiting complementary and