ABSTRACT
The expression 'bricolage' came up frequently in the discussions with farmers in the Saïss plain in Morocco, as they explained how they tinkered on drip irrigation systems until these systems fitted with their needs. Bricolage had a positive connotation for them, as it was understood as a creative process by which they adapted and thus appropriated an imported technology, and of which they were proud. Bricolage can, therefore, be understood as contested practice but also a form of everyday contestation as local actors effectively share responsibilities of the design process with engineers and shape drip irrigation systems in a different way that was envisioned by irrigation companies or the state. This 'bricolage' lens of innovation draws attention to the 'distributed innovation agency of the drip irrigation community' that explains, in part, the success drip irrigation has had with smallholders in North Africa.
