Ambastha, R.

The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme supports soil and water conservation work on private land, a priority identified by villagers, as part of a watershed management project. Villagers suggested that monitoring should look at: erosion controlled; land reclaimed; moisture retention in soil (as inferred from crop growth); and productivity and income generation. The article goes through the process of participatory impact monitoring, illustrated by real results.

Farmers are seen as informants in most development projects, despite their detailed knowledge and understanding of processes. In the work of the Aga Khan Rural Support Project, the farmers not only gather the information themselves, but they analyse it and make decisions based on their own analysis. The article gives a number of ways in which farmers are encouraged to develop their information gathering and analytical skills. It also discusses farmers' abilities as facilitators and presenters.

The Aga Khan Rural Support Program (AKRSP) promotes community participation in natural resource management. Here the monitoring process that comprised part of the general 'Participatory Rural Appraisal, Planning and Evaluation' (PRAPE) used in watershed management programs by the AKRSP in rural Gujarat is described. The participatory monitoring sequence involved: 1. Discussion with each farmer in his field. 2. Decisions as to the variables to be monitored with the farmer groups. 3. Ground mapping of base line and impact maps. 4. Paper mapping, mainly through symbols. 5.

The Aga Khan Rural Support Programme (AKRSP) has worked with a number of village communities in a variety of social and agroecological contexts - tribal areas, semi-arid areas and relatively well-endowed areas of the state of Gujarat. This paper describes the AKRSP approach to PRA and planning. It looks at its methodology, the objective of the planning exercise, who should participate, informing villagers about the programme, and the detail of the programme.

AKRSP supports village institutions in undertaking soil and water conservation on the private land holdings of farmers as a part of the watershed management programme, identified by the villagers as one of their priorities for natural resource management. This paper examines this process with regard to the village of Madargadh. The programme has at its centre the Extension Volunteer, who prepare watershed treatment plans and maps for their village. They are trained in conducting impact studies in order that the impact of soil and water conservation programmes be assessed after the rains.

The key theme of the paper is the inherent capacity of farmers for analysis and the problems encountered as a result of ignoring this characteristic. This lack of acknowledgement has undermined and impinged upon the effectiveness of many rural development programme. Drawing on experience gained from a Watershed Management Programme run by the Aga Khan Rural Support Programme, this paper aims to set the record straight. Its particular concern is the generation of suitable technologies, through participation, which benefit farmers and rural communities.