Experiences from research and extension projects being run at Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) and elsewhere in Tanzania, indicate that farmers' groups can play an instrumental role in the generation of appropriate solutions to small farmers' problems. An approach which uses farmers! groups as points of entry in the rural development process must take into account the diversity of these groups, their inter-linkages or networking, their independence and their relationships with professionals. Both farmers and professionals have to be willing to devote time to know and work with each other. This approach poses two challenges: for professionals to accept (and promote) the increasing emancipation of farmers, and for all concerned to challenge pre-conceived notions of the valuation of time and of the process of development.