* second, the rate at which these develop will inevitably depend partly on wider
 conditions such as the provision of rural education. But those associations of small
 farmers, processors, landless irrigators and landless livestock keepers which do
 emerge offer the prospect of facilitating direct links between researchers and the rural
 poor, and of strengthening the capacity of the latter for exerting a demand-pull on
 research agenda including, as noted above, representation on official bodies governing
 research resource allocations.

* third, a less ambitious form of social organisation than that needed for the establish-
 ment of producers' associations is the formation of groups around specific tasks (seed
 production, irrigation, integrated pest management) where coordinated action is
 necessary. NGO's activities in this sphere need to be examined against wider issues
 of the most appropriate basis for the organisation of membership organizations.
 Nevertheless, some expansion of NGOs' actions in these areas is to be anticipated, and
 can usefully be encouraged by GOs, whose own record as 'social organizers' is weak.

* fourth, NGOs are concerned to develop local capacities for experimentation which
 (depending on their philosophy) build solely on farmers' indigenous knowledge, or
 build both on this and on relevant 'outside' ideas. This strategy may contribute to rural
 advancement in its own right, and the capacity it creates may prove a useful
 independent source of innovations in the absence of useable technologies from GOs.
 Alternatively, given the capability and inclination of GOs to work with the rural poor,
 it will be a useful complement to what GOs can offer.

Many of the arguments about emerging roles and interactions discussed in this paper suggest
that key liaisons could be developed with NGOs in any efforts to develop these wider
brokerage functions among GOs and to relate their work more closely to the needs of the rural
poor. Viewed in this context, whilst macro-economic pressures to reduce the size of the public
sector are bound to remain threatening, they might also, if handled skilfully, mark the
beginnings of an opportunity for GOs to intensify dialogue with NGOs in order to explore
some of the ways identified above of enhancing the effectiveness of their own work.


 Notes

1) The authors are particularly grateful to Elon Gilbert for comments on an earlier draft, but
this does not necessarily implicate him in any of the views expressed here.

2) Conducted from the ODI Agricultural Research and Extension Network and published in
4 volumes by Routledge (Farrington and Bebbington, 1993; Farrington and Lewis, 1993;
Wellard and Copestake, 1993; Bebbington et al., 1993).

3) Asia Regional Workshop on 'NGOs, renewable natural resources management and links
with the public sector' held in Hyderabad, India, 16-20 September 1991.


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