Problems inherent in international rural development cooperative efforts are those caused by the international mix of participants, difficulties in intercultural communication, and cultural biases of western teaching contents and methods. A 6-month program established in 1982 at the International Agricultural Center at Wageningen, Netherlands, trains young scientists from developed and developing countries for interdisciplinary research in agricultural development and employs many techniques to overcome these problems. The program includes 2 months of resident training in Wageningen, 3 months of field studies by teams in developing countries such as the Philippines, Kenya, Senegal, and Sri Lanka, and a final month-long reporting, analyzing period. The beginning period of team training provides an introduction to intercultural communication, problem solving and decision making techniques, group leadership, and interdisciplinary cooperation. Activities include getting acquainted procedures, programmed case studies of leadership, sharing about intercultural differences and home countries, group problem solving, decision making and discussion techniques, group cooperative exercises ("House-Tree-Dog" and "Broken Squares"), and brainstorming. While the proper combination of training elements is still more art than science, awareness of communication problems and the skill to discuss them before they become insurmountable are principal ingredients of intercultural, interdisciplinary cooperation. (NEC)