With the writing of this preface a long journey is coming to an end, an intellectual adventure with many standstills, paths ending in swamps, mountain tracks that make you hesitate to go on but at the same time offer you glimpses of beautiful vistas.I found my research in Trás-os-Montes demanding.Trained in irrigation engineering with professional experience in project management, design and implementation of irrigation projects, becoming involved in proper research activities was surely not evident for me.Only armed with curiosity I had to learn much: making research proposals, writing skills, understanding and coming to grips with theories from the social sciences.At the same time I found it very rewarding.The research in Trás-os-Montes has definitely changed my understanding and thinking on rural development and irrigation.During this journey I met many people which helped me to bring it to a successful conclusion.I owe a lot to them.In the beginning it was particularly the late Jacques Slabbers and Paul Hoogendam from the Department of Irrigation and Soil and Water Conservation at the Wageningen Agricultural University who introduced me to the essentials of doing research and supported me in the development of research skills.At the Departamento de Economia e Sociologia of the Universidade de Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro in Vila Real I found a highly appropriate environment for my research work.I had a very fruitful collaboration with Prof. José Portela.I am impressed by his commitment to contribute to the development of the marginalised Portuguese countryside based on a deep understanding and a encyclopedic first-hand knowledge of all aspects of Portuguese rural society, particularly that of Trás-os-Montes.I would also like to mention the staff members Artur Cristóvão, Alberto Baptista, Vasco Rebelo and Timothy Koehnen for their encouragement and support in various aspects.Henk Oostindie, researcher of the agrarian reality and diversity in Barroso, and Cathe Kwakkenbos, interpreter-translator of Portuguese, were already there when I arrived in Vila Real.We became good friends during our stay in Trás-os-Montes.To Henk I owe much of the statistical analysis underlying the comparison of two contrasting farming patterns in Chapter 5 and much food for thought.Without the 'cave' people, life would have been less enjoyable and funny.It was a great pleasure to work and collaborate with this heterogeneous and changing group of research assistants and Portuguese and Dutch MSc students who, through inventory and case studies contributed much to the research on irrigation and agrarian development in Trásos-Montes.In that connection I would like to mention
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