This paper discusses the notion of farmer empowerment as a primary objective of participatory
research. The authors argue that agricultural technologies are adapted - not adopted – through a
social and cultural process which includes the transformation of the technology. Farmer
participation in agricultural research is important and necessary first of all to increase the
efficiency and impact of agricultural research and technology development. This includes the
identification of traits that can guide crop breeders’ work. Farmer empowerment is valuable and
desirable, and while it can result from participatory research, direct empowerment per se should
not be the main objective of participatory research conducted by research organizations. Of more
importance is the empowerment of partner organizations and the identification of future research
needs, i.e. the functional purposes of participatory approaches in agricultural research
