Hello, I am Shams F. El-Shamy, lecturer in Entomology Department, Faculty of Science, Ain-Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. I worked in nutritional ecology of predatory insects (beetles) for agricultural pest in my master in Denmark. In my PhD I worked with different natural control methods to control stored-grain insects in Egypt. Generally, I am interested in natural control and integrated pest management (IPM). I am really happy to join this e-mail conference at the beginning of my research career. This will help me to have real advice and a whole picture about the agricultural research and their impact assessment. As everyone said, the epIA of agricultural research is a quite complex task in many cases. In my point of view, in a country like Egypt the agricultural research is actually a multidisciplinary project that should combine between the agricultural practical part and a philosophy part (or social studies) especially when dealing with small-scale farmers. In Egypt and many other developing countries, the agricultural sector is largely based on small-scale farmers beside the large-scale projects. This emphasizes that the small-scale farmers are considered as a key factor in the process of epIA of agricultural research. At this point the socio specialists and social advisors will facilitate the communication between researchers and farmers to adopt any new agricultural techniques. On the other hand, for large-scale projects I think it is a good idea to achieve this through the simplified demonstration programs as suggested by Ed Garrett (message 29). Add to this, many farmers are looking for a visible and short-term effect, as mentioned by Peter Stradiot (message 25), before adopting any new techniques. So it comes clear the importance of monitoring non-economic and economic factors that affecting the process of evaluation before and after agricultural research to complete epIA process of agricultural research. Such factors as educational level, culture and poverty especially for small-scale farmers sector will facilitate the implementation of new techniques and ensure the continuity of the agricultural projects for a long term. This agrees with the context of some previous contributors. Many discussions have been also concerned and dealing with the idea of incorporating the small-scale farmers as end users in epIA of agricultural research [Huu-Nhuan Nguyen (message 5), Anna Augustyn (message 9), Atse M. Yapi (message 23) and C. Virginie Mfegue (message 32)]. Another challenging area, in a country like Egypt now, is how to work with project funding agencies and investors for dedicating resources for agricultural projects. Finally, I would like to thank you all for your fruitful discussion and contribution. This will help me to create a good team with needed experience and how to underline the major points in my coming research. Thanks a lot. Dr. Shams Fawki El-Shamy Lecturer Department of Entomology Faculty of Science Ain-Shams University Abbasiya 11566, Cairo, Egypt. E-mail: shfawki (at) hotmail.com Shfawki (at) sci.asu.edu.eg Tel: +20 2 22612577 Mobile: +20 1094877739 [To contribute to this conference, send your message to [log in to unmask] For further information, see http://www.fao.org/nr/research-extension-systems/res-home/news/detail/en/c/217706/ ]. ######################################################################## To unsubscribe from the Impact-L list, click the following link: https://listserv.fao.org/cgi-bin/wa?SUBED1=Impact-L&A=1