Participatory situation analysis with livestock keepers: a guide

This guide is intended to assist people involved in aspects of livestock research and development. It presents outputs from a goat research project that is working with agro-pastoralists in parts of semi-arid India, particularly in Rajasthan. The project's main focus is on understanding and addressing seasonal feed security for goats, through a participatory approach. The general approach for analysing situations was semi-structured interviews, combined with various visual techniques. The main thematic areas looked at are as follows: social group, livelihood systems and livestock; advantages and benefits of different types of livestock; livestock production systems; feeding systems and resources; and animal health. For each of these areas the participatory exercises are set out and the results presented.