s:2163:"%T Participatory watershed management: lessons from RELMA's work with farmers in eastern Africa 
%A Bekele-Tesemma A 
%A Kimaru G 
%X Participatory watershed management was one of the major interventions of the Regional Land Management Unit (RELMA) in eastern Africa. RELMA promoted methods and approaches that have made farmers trust extension workers. Its programmes across the region popularised fa rmer-driven and expert-guided socio- economic diagnosis and environmental a ssessment, planning, implementation and monitoring procedures at th e watershed and household levels. In the process, RELMA has gathered extensive experience on how to simplify know-how and procedures in watershed management so that farmers can easily understand them. This experience includes development of systems and tools that make it easier to transfer knowledge and skills in watershed management betw een countries by harmonising procedures across agroclimatic zones. This paper documents these experiences. It captures methods used to build trust among farmers and extension providers. It discussed the use of community role models and customized PRA techniques, technology demonstrations, and field reconnaissance, al l effective approaches to encourage the participation of farmers in projects. Farming system analysis, deployment of multidisciplinary teams and use of informati on and an incentive have been studied as major socioeconomic assessment variable s. The nature of indigenous knowledge, including its associated weaknesses and adaptive mechanisms, has also been considered. Criteria used by farmers in envi ronmental diagnosis and to assess land potential assessment are studied. Likewise, factors that dictate farmers’ decisions in selecting the type of production on a given parcel of land in a watershed setting are studied along with socioeconomic conditions and market principles. Finally, the paper assesses the criteria that farmers use to monitor and evaluate the contribution of indigenous knowledge and innova tions in watershed management. In conclusion, the paper gives recommendations based on this experiences and prof essional reflections. 
";