Resources

Participatory methods were used during a survey carried out by VetAid project staff at the request of an agro-pastoral community in Daye Chopan District in Afghanistan. The survey aimed to identify decision-making processes in the community, the problems of different wealth groups, physical and cultural restraints, and indigenous technical knowledge. The methods used included wealth ranking, direct matrix ranking, disease ranking, fodder ranking and seasonal calendars. The survey brought to light a severe animal health problem which affected the poorest members of the community most severely. Consultation with community leaders about ways of solving this problem resulted in a project for training livestock keepers to treat, prevent and control the most serious diseases, as ranked by the community.

Wealth ranking was one of the methods used in the early stages of a collaborative research and training project in Mongolia. It served two main purposes, direct and indirect. The direct purpose was to identify locally important criteria for distinguishing households according to wealth, status and power. It was also used to stratify the populations of the sample production brigades, as a first step towards understanding differences in the ways richer and poorer herding households managed their herds, gained access to key natural resources, and responded to risk. Indirectly, wealth ranking did more than other PRA methods used to 'win over' an initially sceptical research team to the value of participatory field research, and did much to change the attitudes and behaviour of the research team.

The Policy Alternatives for Livestock Development (PALD) project aims to facilitate the transition from a centrally planned to a market economy in the extensive livestock sector which dominates the Mongolian rural economy. This report outlines some of the participatory research methods which were used during the training of the Mongolian research team. The methods described include wealth ranking, participatory mapping, transects, ranking of grazing resources, and seasonal calendars showing production, climatic variations, incidence of disease and labour requirements.

Sheep have been reared by the Tzotzil Indians in Highland Chiapas in southern Mexico for over 450 years. Following the failure of various government programmes intended to raise productivity, this study tried a new approach to improving sheep husbandry management. The researchers followed the herds, making observations and interviewing the shepherdesses individually. Previous programmes had failed because of a lack of understanding of the culture of the Tzotzil Indians, in which sheep are viewed as sacred animals. As a result, many of the recommendations were not only inappropriate, but opposed to Tzotzil culture. The study found that the shepherdesses have designed and perfected a management system, based on a blend of Spanish and traditional practices, that has proved very effective.

This paper is based on socio-economic research on the Isiolo Livestock Development Programme in Kenya. It describes a ranking game which was played by the research team with the inhabitants of Isiolo. The game was based on a well-known and commonly played board game. The aim was to get groups of farmers to identify and rank their own problems, and then suggest ways of solving them. Even though the groups were entirely free to select their own problems and allocate their own priorities, a high degree of consensus emerged. This was based on differences in wealth rather than on differnces between production systems or geographic areas. Livestock management problems were the overwhelming concern of the rich while the poor were more concerned by their lack of livestock.

The United Mission to Nepal (UMN) Animal Health Improvement Project (AHIP) has been training Village Animal Health Workers (VAHW) in Pokhara, Nepal for the last decade. During this time approximately 350 VAHWs have been trained. This article outlines some of the techniques that were used to evaluate the subsequent progress of the trainees. General village-level information was gathered using various participatory methods, including mapping, wealth ranking, production information, labour diagrams, proportional piling and annual disease calendars, transect walks and progeny histories. Semi-structured interviews were also carried out individually with male and female farmers and VAHWs to find out how the VAHWs assessed their own work and how the farmers viewed the service they received.