A%20

1
A short list of methods we could discuss

• Agroecosystems Analysis (AEA), Beneficiary
  Assessment, Development Education Leadership
  Teams (DELTA), Diagnosis and Design (DD),
  Diagnostico Rural Participativo (DRP), Farmer
  Participatory Research (FPR), Groupe de Recherche
  et dAppui pour lAuto-promotion Paysanne
  (GRAAP), Methode Active de Recherche et de
  Planification Participative (MARP), Participatory
  Analysis and Learning Methods (PALM),
  Participatory Action Research (PAR),
  Participatory Research Methodology (PRM),
  Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA),
  Participatory Rural Appraisal and Planning
  (PRAP), Participatory Technology Development
  (PTD), Participatory Urban Appraisal (PUA),
  Planning for Real, Process Documentation, Rapid
  Appraisal (RA), Rapid Assessment for Agricultural
  Knowledge Systems (RAAKS), Rapid Assessment
  Procedure (RAP), Rapid Assessment Techniques
  (RAT), Rapid Catchment Analysis (RCA), Rapid
  Ethnographic Assessment (REA), Rapid Food
  Security Assessment (RFSA), Rapid
  Multi-perspective Appraisal (RMA), Rapid
  Organisational Assessment (ROA), Rapid Rural
  Appraisal (RRA), Samuhik Brahman (Joint Trek),
  Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), Story Methodology
  (SM), Theatre for Development, Training for
  Transformation, Visualisation in Participatory
  Programmes (VIPP), ZOPP

More is not necessarily better!
2
The Forages and Livestock SystemsProject
(FLSP)LaosProcess of Working with Farmers
3
1. The Conceptual Process
4
Participatory diagnosis
Active Farmer Participation
5
2. The Process in Practice
6
(No Transcript)
7

• Many projects have had problems
  because they chose villages for
  their convenience rather than
  considering which villages have the best chance
  for success
• Three questions will help you select villages and
  farmers for doing your research
• What do I have to offer?
• What are my social goals?
• Where am I likely to have most impact?

8
Formal experimentation
Participatory diagnosis
Active Farmer Participation
Expansion (Adaptation Adoption)
9
Once you have selected places
to work you need to confirm that there is real
potential for your research. You need to know if
the farmers have problems that could benefit from
your your research To find out, conduct
Participatory Diagnosis
10
Participatory diagnosis...

• is usually the entry point for participatory
  research
• is one or two meetings with the village in which
  farmers and researchers discuss the problems (and
  opportunities) they are facing AND the farmers
  prioritise thoseproblems they would like to try
  to solve now

11
The outputs of participatory diagnosis are...

• an agreement between the community and the
  development workers on which problems to solve
  (or opportunities to develop) and
• who in the communitywill be responsible for
  testing promising technology options (selecting
  a focus group)

12
Some tools to use

• Resource Mapping
• Calendars (seasonal, historical)
• Social Equity analysis
• Prioritise Problems

• Resource Mapping

13
Resource Mapping
Resource Mapping will help you start to
understand village resources and the broad
problems the farmers are facing
14
Mapping
Mapping helps us start to understand village
resources and the problems the farmers are facing
15
In mapping

• encourage all the farmers to participate in the
  mapping exercise.
• ask questions about some of the issues that the
  farmers raise.
•  

16
In mapping, ask the farmers to draw

• the boundary of all their land
• the village features
• the production areas (agriculture, livestock,
  forestry)
• any other features important to them
•  

17
Mapping

• Can be used to understand resource flows and
  social divisions in the community
• Will take at least 1 hour
•  

18
(No Transcript)
19
(No Transcript)
20
(No Transcript)
21
(No Transcript)
22
Some tools to use

• Resource Mapping
• Calendars (seasonal, historical)
• Social Equity analysis
• Prioritise Problems

• Calendars (seasonal, historical)

23
Calendars

• Calendars help us understand
• when activities and problems (such as high labour
  demand, food shortages and disease) happen
  throughout the year (seasonal) and
• how the farming systems and problems are changing
  with time (historical)

24
In preparing calendars, ask the farmers to

• list their main farming activities throughout the
  year
• list the main problems they have that vary
  throughout the year (you can also add some) 

25
In preparing calendars, ask the farmers to

• draw on the calendar when each activity occurs
• describe who is responsible for each activity
  (men or women)
• to rank or weight when each problem is important
•  

26
(No Transcript)
27
(No Transcript)
28
(No Transcript)
29
(No Transcript)
30
Some tools to use

• Resource Mapping
• Calendars (seasonal, historical)
• Social Equity analysis
• Prioritise Problems

• Social Equity analysis

31
Wealth Analysis
In every community there are differencesbetween
people such as wealth andgender. Some people are
poor and other people are relatively better
off. Different groups have different problems
and opportunities
32
Wealth Analysisis an approach that helps you

• define these wealth groups in a village
• understand the main characteristics of each
  group,
• understand why some people are poor while others
  are relatively better off, and
• identify who in the community belongs to each
  group.

33
Ask the farmers to

• describe the different wealth groups
• describe the main characteristics of each group,
• discuss why some people are poor while others are
  relatively better off, and
• identify who in the community belongs to each
  group.

34

• Enough food (16 farmers)
• surplus rice every year
• have both lowland and upland fields
• raise pigs, chickens, ducks and buffalo or cattle
  for sale
• can purchase replacement if animals die
• nice house
• have money/capital
• have education
• know how to utilize resources well
• settled earlier in the village

35

• 2. Food shortages sometimes (35 farmers)
• sufficient/surplus rice in some years
• less land than the sufficient food group
• less livestock than the sufficient food group
  (sold only in times of need)
• can purchase replacement if animals die
• less nice house than food sufficient group
• have many different activities for income and
  livelihood
• weave for sale
• exchange labor

36

• 3. Food shortages each year (18 farmers)
• rice shortage every year
• no lowland area
• have only chickens and ducks (not for sale)
• can not purchase replacement if animals die
• house not nice
• lack money to invest
• no education
• settled in the village after 1975

37
Gender Analysis

• You may need to work with women and men
  separately
• At all stages of your research, you need to keep
  asking yourself who is participating?,
  who is making the decisions?, who is doing the
  work?, who has controls the resources?,
  what are their opportunities, constraints,
  responsibilities, perceptions interests? And
  who is benefiting from your work?

38
Some tools to use

• Resource Mapping
• Calendars (seasonal, historical)
• Social Equity analysis
• Prioritise Problems

• Prioritise Problems

39
Prioritise Problems
In this first village meeting you need toknow
how important all their problemsare in
agriculturenot just the ones youthink you can
research. Asking farmers to list and prioritise
all their agricultural problems will help you
understand how important are the problems that
you think you may be able to help solve with your
research.
40
Now that you and the villagers have agreed on
the problems (oropportunities) that you want to
research, you can now work with the focus group
to understand these problems in more detail Once
you have done that you can then discuss the
technologies that could be tested and the farmers
select which ones to test
41
A good tool to use

• Problem Analysis

42
Problem Analysis

• helps the focus group to define their problems
  and opportunities in detail
• helps them identify which are the high priority
  problems for research
• builds on the understanding you already gained in
  the maps and calendars

43
In Problem Analysis, ask the farmers

• to identify the causes of their main problems

44
Overworked animals
Few calves Thin calves
Lack of information
Drought
Parasites and disease
Thin animals
Lack of feeds in the dry season
Limited area for grazing
Poor animal nutrition
Perceived problems

45
In Problem Analysis, ask the farmers

• to identify the causes of their main problems
• to prioritise these causes

46
(No Transcript)
47
In Problem Analysis, ask the farmers

• to identify the causes of their main problems
• to prioritise these causes
• to identify which causes contribute to other
  problems

48
Lack of feeds in the dry season
49
In Problem Analysis, ask the farmers
4. what have they done to deal with these
problems in the past?
50
Limited area for grazing
Drought
Lack of feeds in the dry season
Reduce the number of animals
Provide feed supplements
Hire labour
Seek veterinary advice
Past strategies

51
In Problem Analysis, ask the farmers

• 4. what have they done to deal with these
  problems in the past?
• 5. what would they like to solve now?

52
Limited area for grazing
Drought
Lack of feeds in the dry season
Reduce the number of animals
Provide feed supplements
Try new ways of feeding animals
Hire labour
Seek information and advice
Seek veterinary advice
Future plans

53
Cattle are thin and weak
54
Too many cattle in the village
Expanding area of crop land
Drought
Area of grazing land getting smaller
Diseases and parasites
Lack of feeds in the dry season
No longer allowed to graze in forest
CAUSES
Cattle are thin and weak
55
Too many cattle in the village
Expanding area of crop land
Drought
Area of grazing land getting smaller
Diseases and parasites
Lack of feeds in the dry season
No longer allowed to graze in forest
CAUSES
Cattle are thin and weak
EFFECTS
More disease problems
Ploughing takes longer
Thin calves
Need to hire labour for extra ploughing
Fewer calves
Less income
56
Too many cattle in the village
Expanding area of crop land
Drought
Sold some cattle
Area of grazing land getting smaller
Diseases and parasites
Lack of feeds in the dry season
Used traditional medicines
Provide extra cut feed
No longer allowed to graze in forest
CAUSES
Cattle are thin and weak
EFFECTS
More disease problems
Ploughing takes longer
Thin calves
Need to hire labour for extra ploughing
Fewer calves
Less income
57
Too many cattle in the village
Expanding area of crop land
Drought
Sold some cattle
Area of grazing land getting smaller
Diseases and parasites
Lack of feeds in the dry season
Used traditional medicines
Provide extra cut feed
No longer allowed to graze in forest
Try new ways of feeding animals
Need help with animal diseases
CAUSES
Cattle are thin and weak
EFFECTS
More disease problems
Ploughing takes longer
Thin calves
Need to hire labour for extra ploughing
Fewer calves
Less income
58

• Once the focus-group farmers and the researchers
  have agreed on which technologies to test and how
  to test them, you are ready to start field
  experiments
• Three important principles will help you at the
  beginning
• Start small!
• Keep the experiments as simple as possible!
• Encourage farmers to innovate!

59
Testingtechnologies...

• Farmers will need time to test the technology
  options before they areready to commit their
  opinions.
• They need to be able to see it working on their
  own fields to be able to assess benefits and
  risks

60
Testingtechnologies...
Controlled experiments or farmer-run
non-replicated trials? It depends on your
goals! Probably BOTH. Controlled experiments
are really the only way to get accurate,
reliable, rigorous data Farmer trials are
really the only way to get good farmer
feedback
61
Testingtechnologies...

• How to deal withcomplexity in the field?
• Search for robust technologies
• Do careful site and farmer selection to
  understandthe niches where your technology works
• Do evaluations with many farmers across the
  variability

62

• As you start experiments with farmers, you want
  to understand which options they prefer and why.
  
• You can do this through
• Regular monitoring
• Technical measurements
• Measure each farmers preferences and criteria
• Focus-group meeting
• Village feedback meeting

63
A good tool to use

• Preference Analysis

64
Some lessons we have learned

• This is a learning process. We need regular
  action followed by reflection
• The key to successful use of the approach is
  active, decision-making involvement of farmers at
  ALL stages
• At the beginning, try to offer a broad range of
  robust technical options with some entry point
  technologies that give quick benefits

65
Some lessons we have learned

1. It is an important role of researchers to
   clearly describe the technical limits of the
   options
2. work with the right farmers
3. Start small small successes are better than big
   failures
4. You can rarely photocopy technologies from one
   place to another
5. If you have good technologies be prepared for
   expansion!

66
Two notes on tools and methods
67
A short list of methods we could discuss

• Agroecosystems Analysis (AEA), Beneficiary
  Assessment, Development Education Leadership
  Teams (DELTA), Diagnosis and Design (DD),
  Diagnostico Rural Participativo (DRP), Farmer
  Participatory Research (FPR), Groupe de Recherche
  et dAppui pour lAuto-promotion Paysanne
  (GRAAP), Methode Active de Recherche et de
  Planification Participative (MARP), Participatory
  Analysis and Learning Methods (PALM),
  Participatory Action Research (PAR),
  Participatory Research Methodology (PRM),
  Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA),
  Participatory Rural Appraisal and Planning
  (PRAP), Participatory Technology Development
  (PTD), Participatory Urban Appraisal (PUA),
  Planning for Real, Process Documentation, Rapid
  Appraisal (RA), Rapid Assessment for Agricultural
  Knowledge Systems (RAAKS), Rapid Assessment
  Procedure (RAP), Rapid Assessment Techniques
  (RAT), Rapid Catchment Analysis (RCA), Rapid
  Ethnographic Assessment (REA), Rapid Food
  Security Assessment (RFSA), Rapid
  Multi-perspective Appraisal (RMA), Rapid
  Organisational Assessment (ROA), Rapid Rural
  Appraisal (RRA), Samuhik Brahman (Joint Trek),
  Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), Story Methodology
  (SM), Theatre for Development, Training for
  Transformation, Visualisation in Participatory
  Programmes (VIPP), ZOPP

More is not necessarily better!
68
Also, take note that
The tools are NOT the output!
Better understanding of farmers opportunities,
constraints and goals is the output
69
Click the back button on your browser to return
to the main menu