Professional Documents
Culture Documents
IRAL RESOURCES
CONFERENCEPAPER
HARARE, OCTOBER1995
PARTICIPATORYTECHNOLOGYDEVELOPMENT
WITH FARMER RESEARCHGROT]PS
Lessonsfrom Zannbar
zccFsP
POBox 2283
Zarnbar
Tel./fax:(05a)nU
CONTENTS
Pageno.
Introduction I
Local social,economicandinstitutionalfactorswhichled I
to the adoptionof the FRG approach
Initial orperiences 2
Problemareas 9
Other approaches
beingusedby ZCCFSPandMALNR l0
Lessons t2
Summaryof methodology t4
ABBREVIATIONS
FRG FarmerResearchgroup
MALNR Mnistry of Agriculture,Livestockandnaturalresources
PRA ParticipatoryRural appraisal
zccFsP ZannbarCashCrop FarmingSystemsproject
e
INTRODUCTION
andthe decision
top-downcrop-orientedapproachmetwith little success
This essentially
was soonmadeto adopta moreparticipatoryapproactr,to concentratemore on the
farmingsystemspart of the projeottitle.
Rural areas
e High populationdensity,smallfarm size,considerablelandborrowingin manyareas.
. Significantvariationbetween&re&s:agro-ecological;cropsgolvn; importaoceof oF
farm income;acc€ssto markets;involvementof womenin agriculture.
r History of governmentcontrol hasresultedin a reductionin the senseof responsibility
of farmersfor solvingthek own problemsanda lack of communitystructurewithin
villages,outsideof family groups. Also an expectationof direct benefitswhenworking
with government.
o Low input-low output agriculturepractisedin most rueas.
INTIIAL EXPERIENCES
Issues locotion
Iswesregardinggroup selection
For our purposeswe wanteda groupwhich was most representativeof the peoplemost
involvedin agriculturewithin that area.
The first goup wasformedby inviting a contactfarmerto selecta group. The resulting
gfoup hasa reasonablemix of ages,but too manyof the group membersarerelated. There
is only onewomanin the group, but womenarenot muchengagedin agriculturein this
afea.
For the secondgroupit wasdecidedto ta(getwomenonly. This decisionwasbasedon the
observationthat womendo most of the agriculturalactivitiesin the selectedfarmingsystem
zone,whereasmenaremostlyinvolvedin earningoFfarm income. Following a more
detailedstudy,howwer, it was discoveredthat althoughwomendo most of the
agriculturalworh they were not muchirrvolvedin farmingon tho coral rag, an important
farmingareafor the village,becausethey arenot ableto do the necessarybushclearance.
A discussionwas heldwith the womenaboutthis issueandthey decidedto includefour
menin the group. This group now consistsof eight womenandfour men.
Village selection
Group selection
Having decidedon the village,a teamof two peoplewere s€ntto the villagewith the task
of identiSing possiblegroup members. Tkee separateinformantswere identifiedwithin
the village,who wereselectedon their abilityto be ableto identify possiblegoup
members, Theseinformantswere told aboutthe aimsof forming a researchgroup and
were askedto zuggesta mix of people-differentages,gorder, wealth,family grouping.
The importantcharacteristicfor all group membersbeinga willingnessto participateand
try newtechniques.
Creatinga researchpragramme
4. Eachday's findingsarediscussedcollectivelyeach€veningandanynecessary
modificationsar€madeto the checklistof the following day.
5. A meetingwith all the membersofthe FRG is heldon the final morningto providean
opporhrnityto presentanddiscusspreliminaryresultsof the surveyandoutline subsequent
stagesof the researchprocesswith farmersbeforethankingthemfor their co-operation.
6. Back in the office,a dayis givento the collectiveanalysisofthe data. Minutesof the
analysisaretakento form the basisof a report summarisingthe findingsof the study. Also
notesare compiledon eachfarmer,which generallytakesabouta week. Responsibilifyfor
drawingup the reportis givento two teammembers.
Advantages
e importanttrainingfunctionfor project andMALNR staff. Improvesinterview,report
writing andanalyticalskills.
o More rapidthan conventiondPRA which involvesmatrix andwealthranking.
o The informationgatheredcanbe directly used.
Disadvantages
o Sometypesof informationare difficult to obtainwith zucha rapid proc€ss,for example
informationaboutincome.
6
Subsequently, the groupwas giventhe choiceof a wide rangeof tree crop seedlings,
availablein the project andforestrynurseries.The seedlingswere sold dt a subsidisedrate,
choiceof species,numbersandwhereto plant wasleft to the farmer.
This was still not very satisfactoryasit was difficult to dealwith major iszues,suchas soil
fertility andredevelopmentof the cloveplantationarea. A detailedstudywas then
undertakenof eachfarmer(asdescribedfor PRA above). From this a muchwider rangeof
researchthemesaros€. The themesareactuallyquite similarfor all the FRGs,although
thereare somedifferences.The currentthernesfor DayaFRG are:
Following the PRA in Daya,the finding$were discussedwith the group and the individual
farmersdecidedwhat sort of investigationtheywould do. Now thereis a mix of :
t Semi-formaltrials. Examples:comparisonof artificial fertilizer, compostandcattle
msnureon bananas.Thesetrials could be categorisedasresearcherdesigned- farmer
implemented.
t Informal iwestigations.Examples:compostmaking,monkeycontrol, trying new
crops/varieties.Couldbe describedasfarmerdesigned- farmerimplemented.
7
Measarementsand recording
All trials are kept very simple. The majorobjectiveis to get the farmers'opinioris-about
the viability of a technology(technicalandsocio-economic).In sometrials the farmer
measuresthe yield, in othersno measurements aretaken.
Inputs
Meetings
Topical studies
Remlts
The Dayafarmersgroup is now startingto repaythe effort requiredto start it. None ofthe
farmershavedroppedout. Someadditionalfarmerswant to joi4 but the group havenot
wantedto expand, The farmersreport that other peoplein the villageusedto makefirn of
the farmerswhenthey havetried new cropsor techniques,but the group farmersthink that
the last laughwill be on them.
PROBLEM AREAS
Expectation
Conceptof research
Working outsidethe remit of the project is not idealas it mayresrlt in duplicationof effort,
but on the otherhandthe divisionsbetweensectionsare somewhatartificial and are not a
logical dMde but relateto donor activity. Most MALNR staffreceivegeneraltrainingin
agriculture.Someg* specialised trainingbut thenmaybe postd to anothersectionon
return from training. The structureof the Ministry haschangedmanytimeswithin the last
l0 yearsandwill probablychangeagainin the future.
The FRG progranmeis the mainmethodusedby the project for doing long term indepth
researchanddwelopmentof new technologiesin a participativemanner,but it is by no
meansthe only approachbeingusedby the projector the widerMnistry.
Other ZCCFSP
farmerswereidentified(opento anyfarmer),potentialtradersfoundandplantingmaterials
were distributed.
On the positiveside:
r The FRG approachreducesthe dependency of the group on the institution,through
minimisingthe useof inputsandttrough participation,
o The MALNR staffbenefitfrom prolongedcontactwith farmersandthe flexibletwo-way
approachneededfor working with groups.
r Chanetrng institutionsis a slow process,oneof thebestinfluenceson positivechangeis
to demonstrateeffectivemethodsfor agriculturaldwelopment.
o FRGsare an effectiveway of ensuringthat frrmers' constraintsandoppornrnitiesform
the basisfor the work progranrme.
r FRGsareprobablyoneofthe cheapest methodsfor dwelopingappropriateagricultural
technologies.
LESSONS
SUMMARY OF METIIODOLOGY