Since beginning work as a voluntary non-government development organization in Bangladesh in 1970, Mennonite Central Committee's (MCC) technically qualified volunteers and staff have conducted farmer participatory research and collaborated with government researchers and institutions for agricultural development. MCC achieved limited success in communicating the needs and constraints of marginal farmers to government researchers and institutions, and likewise had limited success in adapting government research to the subsistence farmer context. The paper documents the evolution of MCC's Agriculture Programme, describes MCC's agricultural research .and extension effort and impact, discusses MCC's procedure for setting research agenda, presents case studies of collaborative efforts, and indicates possible MCC directions for the future.