Revolutionary central leaderships usually desire agrarian transformation from individual to collective agriculture from out of macro perceptions not initially shared by the peasantry. This paper seeks to understand, from a comparative study of experiences in North Viet Nam, Tanzania and Ethiopia, what are the possibilities and policy issues for achieving peasant participation in such transformation. The study suggests that there must be evident material compulsion for the peasantry to voluntarily adopt collectivism. But this is not enough. Natural inclination of the peasantry under such circumstances towards co-operation in production may be destroyed by an attempt to force the pace of transition to collectivism. What is needed is a careful strategy of steering the peasantry through progressive praxis in collective agriculture, in which co-operation in production develops organically as a productive force in terms both of peasant motivation and their capability for managing the complex collective tasks. There is thus an evolutionary stream in participatory transition to collective agriculture. This at any stage should be more advanced the earlier it starts, and it is never too early to begin, even before a macro-political change takes place.