Technology and research considerations in ICRAF"s `diagnosis and design" procedures

Picking up after the pre-diagnosis/diagnosis stages, which analyze key constraints in a land use system and outline the kinds of changes which may be needed (see "Resources for Agroforestry: Diagnosis and Design" [PN-AAU-998] and its companion volume "Guidelines for Agroforestry Diagnosis and Design"), this paper briefly explains and provides examples for each of the following 9 steps. The design stage (steps 7-11) identifies possible technologies which could help to overcome land use constraints ("leverage" points) and produces a prioritized list of specific technical proposals for species to be used and management practices to be tried. The planning stage (steps 12-13) summarizes what can immediately be put into practice while providing, at the same time, an annotated list of research needs; plans for parallel research and extension activities are also formulated. Implementation (steps 14-15) involves preparing specific plans for each of the proposed technologies regarding objectives, experimental designs, resource allocation, and methods of data evaluation. The full procedure concludes with evaluation (step 16). The paper supplements the narrative with extracts from related writings and with detailed charts to guide the practitioner in the application of the methodology.