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Agricultural advisory services intend to build demand driven pro-poor institutions in many developing countries of Asia and Africa. Contemporary agricultural development aiming at poverty alleviation requires an inclusive process that enhances compatible understanding among multiple actors and their collective actions. However, agricultural research and development professionals are now facing more challenges than in the past in harmonizing relevant norms, values, principles, interests and incentives of the multiple partners and poor clients. This book highlights reasons for these challenges in the context of an agricultural development project in Bangladesh. The book discusses several theoretical and practical arguments about why interactive processes often fail to address complex problems of poverty alleviation. The author argues for a facilitation process aiming at social learning and formulates several recommendations for building relevant and effective pro-poor institutions.

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Ataharul Chowdhury completed his Bachelor and Masters from the Bangladesh Agricultural University. He holds an MSc in Agro-ecological Knowledge and Social Change from the Wageningen UR, The Netherlands. He has eight years of teaching and research experiences on topics of innovation and rural extension in Bangladesh, The Netherlands and Austria.

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