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Source: RRA Notes (1991), Issue 13, pp.7780, IIED London

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PRA camp at Mahilong, Bihar, 27-30 November, 1990:Krishi Gram Vikas Kendra

Ravi Jayakaran

The KGVK experience

KGVK is an NGO sponsored and supported bythe Usha Martin Group of Industries. It hasconducted a series of PRA training exercises

for government officers of watershed andforestry programmes, for voluntary agencies,for NGOs and for research institutions. Thestrategy for PRA is as follows:

adopt PRA as part of KGVKs operationalstrategy;

provide training for those requesting it (totrain them into trainers);

organise exposure workshops in Ranchiand neighbouring areas to create aninterest in PRA;

train sufficient number of people in otherorganisations to form a network;

find, locate, train and develop at least 6 to7 persons in the central and North Easternzone of India who will then be available totrain others; and,

prepare and make available relevant PRAliterature to particularly influencegovernment officers.

We have faced several important problems:

if we are going to be able to meet some ofthe demands for conducting PRA then wewill have to start thinking in terms ofgetting additional persons so that ongoingprogrammes dont suffer. This will meanwe have to start charging for conductingworkshops (which may again dissuadepeople from asking for them);

preparing and printing literature isexpensive. Earlier we had been sendingcopies of reports to people asking them toreturn us a photocopy for passing on (butno one sends back the photocopy!); and,

preparing a handbook on PRA to get

government officers interested in PRA.Once feedback is received on the draftcirculated to various persons, funds will berequired to print this and circulate it todifferent senior government officers.

Our dream is:

to see PRA become a way of life amongthe voluntary agencies in this region; and,

to see more government officers interestedin and adopting PRA.

This report is of one of our first PRA trainingexercises, held in Mahilong to train XISS staff.

PRA camp, Mahilong

The first PRA camp was held in Gerebir,Ranchi, with Robert Chambers and JamesMascarenhas providing the basic introductionto the concept. Krishi Gram Vikas Kendra(KGVK) thereafter had its own PRA camp at

village Chaitra from 5-8 September with Dr RI Jayakaran acting as the principal resourceperson as none of the others who had beentrained could give time. The Chaitra camp wasorganised with a view not only to obtainrelevant information regarding projectsuitability but also to train up more resourcepersons from within KGVK itself to facilitatemore widespread use of the system.Accordingly, several persons from KGVKattended the camp and were trained asresource persons. A considerable amount of

information was obtained at this camp and therest of the KGVK team that was initially a

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little sceptical about the utility and applicationof PRA suddenly discovered that here was asystem that seemed to be a real answer toprayer, able to bypass the cumbersome andlargely futile exercise of the traditionalquestionnaire survey system.

On reassessing the system KGVK feels thatbesides its other advantages PRA restores tofarmers their rightful dignity, in recognisingthem as intelligent beings, environmentallyconscious and hard working. It recognises andappreciates their efforts to survive in theirenvironment, seeks to learn what that effort isand how it came about thus paving the way tounderstand best what type of programme willbe suitable and enjoy the farmers hearty

participation. KGVK has thus been talking tovarious people about this concept and sharingthe experience with others in the ruraldevelopment field. Opportunities have alsocome to make slide and overhead projectorpresentations to senior government officers ofthe State at the State level National WatershedDevelopment Workshops. Several seniorgovernment officers in Ranchi have alsoshown keen interest in the use of PRA andhave attended talks on introduction to theconcept of PRA.

Father L Francen sj, Director of XavierInstitute of Social Services, requested KGVKto organise a PRA camp for the training ofsome XISS field project officers in PRA.Unfortunately the only time available wasbetween 27-30 November, a time not entirelysuitable for the PRA camp because it was thebusiest time in the year for agriculturaloperations. However, despite this KGVK wentahead with organising the camp with two mainobjectives. One, to be able to make the project

officers of XISS familiar with PRA and two,to get relevant information about Mahilongvillage for making development efforts moreparticipatory. Both these objectives werefulfilled to a large extent during the fieldexercises of meeting farmers at their threshinggrounds. However, since the final concludingprogramme of the Village ResourceDevelopment Plan (VRDP) was broughtforward from 1 Dec to 30 Nov, as the XISSteam had to return on the 30th itself, thespontaneity of the participation of villagers inthis could not be seen as farmers were not freeat that time. It was felt that farmers, though

willing to spare some time for discussion attheir threshing ground (Khaliyan), were notwilling to come away to another spot fordiscussion.

All said and done a considerable amount ofinformation was obtained about the village andtheir priority needs were identified. Severalnew and interesting studies emerged from thiscamp as can be seen from the group reportscontained in the report of the camp (availablefrom KGVK). The villagers were informed inadvance about the camp and participantsmoved into camp on 27 November 1990.

The sequence

The sequence followed was that of introducingthe topics using examples on types of studiesthat could be made, followed by grouping intomulti-disciplinary teams for visiting the villageto conduct the field exercises.

Each group was given a specific topic to workon, and on returning, they made presentationsof their observations at the camp site to therest of the group. Ideally this would have beenbest done at the village itself, but since, as hasalready been mentioned earlier, farmers were

busy with their threshing operations it had tobe done at the camp site. Each group madeefforts while carrying out field exercises tocarry out TRIANGULATION of theinformation locally. The exercises conductedwere as follows:

Time-line;

Family Line;

Seasonality: rainfall, agriculturaloperations, labour opportunities, crops andvegetables, festivals, migrations, etc;

Trends: health, agriculture, livelihood,land-use, social, etc;

Patterns of land use: house, orchard,agriculture;

Participatory resource mapping;

Conflict resolving and causes;

Livelihood analysis;

Produce marketing outlets/patterns;

Transects;

Matrix ranking for preferences (plants,trees, vegetables, crop varieties, etc);

Relationship with persons; Relationship with institutions;

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Wealth ranking; and,

Village Resource Development Plan(VRDP):

priorities for development;who does what;who does what by when: no cost, lowcost, medium cost, high cost; and,specific area where outside help isrequired.

Special features

Some very major and significant observationscame out of the various studies conducted atthis camp. Some of these were as follows:

That there is major trend in inclinationtowards service employment rather thanself employment.

That there is a trend even among therelatively better off families to even sendtheir grown up daughters for casual labourjobs with the practical approach ofpreparing them for difficult days ahead aswell as arrange for their own dowries.

That as far back as 40-50 years ago effortsto develop the nullah that transverses thevillage were made. Soil and water

harvesting structure were verystrategically made.

That as one moves away from the mainroad towards the most difficult to reachtolas (like Jayatoli) there is a greaterinterest in agriculture, and also morepoverty, with one whole tola not havingeven a reliable source of drinking water.

That though some very competent andreliable local paddy varieties likeKalamdani and Anjani exist in the village;the agricultural interest dwindles after theKharif seasons. However, there are a totalof 20 varieties of rice cultivated. Weconducted a ranking and a selection of theresults are contained in Figures 50a and b.We also learned why the modern variety,IR36, is not favoured in this village. InMay, fathers go round the fields in searchfor possible husbands for their daughters.They are looking for good farmers and thekey indicator is the size of the strawstackin the field following the rice harvest.IR36 gives a small pile, even though thegrain yield might be good, so is not

favoured by farmers wishing to showthemselves in good light!

That during the Rabi season a majorinterest (almost 75%) is on potatoproduction and the rest in othervegetables. We conducted a matrixranking of 6 potato varieties (see Figure51).

That piggery development is a matter ofinterest and several farmers are keen totake it up.

That a fairly good primary school has beenin operation in the village for over 50years and consequently several of theolder persons are literate.

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Figure 50a. Preferences for paddy varieties in Mahilong village. Selection of 20varieties

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Figure 51. Matrix ranking of six potato varieties, Mahilong

Figure 52. Livelihood source analysis

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Figure 53. Pie diagrams of land utilisation

The unexpected brings opportunities

Though the timing for the camp was notsuitable inasmuch that it was during thefarmers busiest time, most groups reportedthat active participation of farmers was therewhen they visited them at their threshinggrounds. Most farmers gave quite a lot of theirtime talking and explaining. Much of this waspreceded by the participants offer to join in

and help.

Another unexpected event was the staging of astreet play or Nukkad arranged by the ForestDepartment to which they invited theparticipants. The events though seeming to bea wasteful diversion of time initially openedup the possibilities of the use of drama also tointroduce new concepts of development tovillages.

A conclusion also drawn was that while

harvest time could be avoided for future campsit was also a blessing in that at least most of

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the farmers were available in the village. Thecamp site however, should be right in themiddle of the village itself so that less time iswasted going up and down for field exercises.

Some selected diagrams

There have been many innovations. Two arerepresented in Figures 52 and 53, whichcomprise an analysis of livelihood sources andchanges, and a pie diagram of land utilisation.

Ravi Jayakaran, KGVK, Tatisilwai,Ranchi 835 103, Bihar, India.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

To Mr. Basant Kumar Jhawar and Mr. BrijKishore Jhawar whose whole hearted

support to our taking up PRA has been agreat encouragement.To our spearhead team Pandey, Jain, Roy

Choudhury, Alok, Deepankar and Subir fortheir continued hard work and willingnessto go along even when the road is

sometimes tough.

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