Participatory Technology Development – Experience of Karnataka Community Based Tank Management Project

Meaning and importance

Participatory Technology Development (PTD) is the practical process of bringing together the knowledge and research capacities of the local farming communities with that of the commercial and scientific institutions in an interactive way. It involves activities where local producers and traders work together with external actors in the identification generation, testing and application of new technologies and practices.

The process of technology development is closely linked with a process of social change. Encouraging local innovation through self organized planning, implementation and evaluation of systematic experiments fosters self respect and self confidence in the rural communities involved. It also fosters a process of cultural awareness and change, as the planning and assessment obliges the participants to take account of their situation and the responsibilities of different people in the community (eg. the different needs of women and men and the different barriers they face in trying to change their situation). Moreover, each community is made up of a variety of individuals with a diversity of interest and lifestyles, as becomes apparent especially when criteria for ‘improved’ technologies are debated. Yet another complication may be that natural resources and being used not just by one sedentary community but also by temporary immigrants and new immigrants into the area. Therefore, the process of local technology development in agriculture, horticulture and sericulture etc. will also often involve negotiations and the development of new institutions to accommodate change in use of natural resources.

Characteristics of PTD

The participatory technology development is a complementary process to the research conducted by the scientists. The PTD aims at linking the power and capacities of science to the priorities and capacities of farming communities to develop productive and sustainable farming systems. The scientists, extension workers and the farmers are the main actors in the participatory technology development. The scientists and extension workers act as external agency in the technology development process. The scientists and extension workers as an external agency, have to perform different functions at different stages. The success depends on the efficiency of the external agency in performing their functions.

Farmers Field School (FFS) Vs PTD

Perception of Participation: while PTD promotes a bottom up learning environment based on indegenous knowledge, FFS provide a more traditional teacher-student setting for learning about knowledge held by outsiders.

Attitudinal changes: where PTD seeks major changes in attitudes of researchers and extensionists, FFS could be seen as the most effective way to accomodate the existing attitudes of these professionals.

The learning process: although both approaches are based on self discovery activities, FFS set fixed learning targets, while PTD is an open ended process.

Partners involved in PTD

Farmers, field extension staff of Development  Departments, NGOs, input agencies, Agricultural research stations are involved in the process. Out of which, farmers and field extension staff are involved during the entire process, others participate as and when required.

When to have PTD?

PTD is a season long process and is conducted when, (a) appropriate technologies are not available/ known for a particular problem in a specific location, and (b) the existing technology involves high external input usage leading to high production cost and causing damage to the environment

Where to conduct PTD?

PTD is done on farmers’ fields, who are willing to take up trials. For purposes of comparisons, control plots are also maintained, which are similar to the plots in all the aspects including plot size.

Stages in PTD

There is a certain sequence in the way PTD is done. The PTD practitioners from outside the community introduce themselves to the communities where PTD process has to be started,  build up a good relationship with local people, analyse the existing agricultural situation and form a basis for cooperation with networks of farmers to start the process of technology development. This includes, widening of understanding of all involved about the sociological, socio-economic cultural and political dimensions of the current situation. There are six stages involved in PTD process viz., problem identification, search for solution(s), designing experiments, conducting trials/experiments, assessment of research outcome and communication of results. For each stage, the approach to be followed, the functions of external agency and the expected outcome are described. The pattern of these stages is shown in the figure. However, the process under each stage need not necessarily follow the sequence in which it is described. 

Problem identification: The starter problem/core problem identification is the basic step in the participatory technology development process. A careful analysis of both felt and unfelt needs or problems has to be carried out. Screening and discussing secondary data, community/farm walk, transect walk, problem census, community led surveys; focus group interviews, etc. are some of the techniques useful at this stage. The expected outcomes at this stage are, (a) an accepted agenda for PTD, (b)improvement in farmers skills in analysing problems and looking for options, (c) increased social awareness and self confidence, (d) PTD groups established, and (e) an improved organisational basis for conducting systematic local trials.

Ex. Growing paddy (which is an high water consumptive crop) in the head reach of tank command area with continued submergence will result in non availability of water to the crops in tail end of the tank command area.

Search for solution(s): documenting the indigenous knowledge/practices to the identified problem(s). Combining such knowledge/practices with the scientific knowledge and prioritizing the possible solutions are the important functions. Some of the approaches helpful to the scientists and extensionists to tap indigenous knowledge include making diagrams, case histories, critical incident techniques, preference ranking or matrix ranking. Farmer-expert workshops can also be organized. The outcomes at this stage are, (a) set of alternatives to solve the problems based on the SWOT analysis, and (b) improved skills of the farmers to analyse each alternatives based on the strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats analysis.

Ex. To overcome the problem of non availability of water to the farmers in the tail ends of the tank command area, one of the solutions is changing the irrigation practice. ie., instead of continued submergence, wetting the paddy field or cultivation by adopting light irrigation method  or  maintaining aerobic conditions or SRI method. The other solution is, cultivation of short duration paddy varieties like KRH-2, Rasi, Mangala, Tellahamsa, etc.

Designing experiments: it is important that the researcher design experiments that suit the farmers’ purposes and strengthen their capacity to design experiments independently. It is important to determine the variables/parameters to be included in the experiment and their quantification techniques or means of verification. It is also essential to sequence the entire methodological aspects at this stage. Farmer-expert workshop, innovator workshops and study tours can be employed at this stage. The outcome of this stage are, (a) experimental designs that are reliable, evaluable and manageable by farmers, (b) improved skills of farmers to design trials and (c) monitoring and evaluation systems in place.

Ex. To test the above two solutions in solving the problem, following treatments can be included in the experiment.

Treatments relating to irrigation management
T 1 = Submerged paddy cultivation (Farmers method); T2 = Aerobic method; T3 = SRI method
Treatments relating to varieties
T 1 =KRH-2 ; T2= Rasi; T3 = Mangala
Number of replications = 3

The layout will be as given below.

Conducting trials/experiments: Calendar of operations has to be developed all the partners and implementation has to be according to the calendar of operations. The step-wise implementation of the activities will strengthen the linkages among various agencies/organizations for timely and precise experimentation. Regular guidance to those involved in research has to be given. Especially, the farmers have to be trained in proper conduct of experiments. Group discussion meetings, method demonstrations involving concerned farmers at different stages of the crop growth have to be adopted. Proper monitoring is an important activity to be carried out by the scientists at this stage. The expected outcomes are, (a) a good number of experiments with technologies relevant to local situations, are implemented and evaluated systematically, (b) development of PTD network, within and between villages, (c) institutional linkages are built, (d) the practical skills of involved groups of farmers to implement and evaluate experiments systematically are strengthened, and (e) growing active support of outside organisations and institutions.

Ex. After initiating the experiments as per the layout and calendar of operations, recording observations on growth parameters viz., plant height, number of tillers, number of leaves and yield parameters viz., number of panicles/ hill, number of grains/panicle, 100 seed weight, chaffy grains at appropriate stage of the crop etc., have to be carried out jointly by the farmers, field extension workers and scientists. Appropriate tools for recording observations should be made available.

Assessment of research outcome: Assigning the farmers to objectively assess the outcome of research on economic feasibility such as relative advantage in terms of profitability and duration and sustainability factors viz. ecologically sound, economically viable, socially just, humane, adaptable is necessary to prove the worth of the solution in the real world. If the outcome is not satisfactory, again the process should be repeated right from searching for solution stage. This should continue till the satisfactory solutions are identified. The important outcomes at this stage are, (a) identification of appropriate alternative to solve the existing problem, (b) future course of action on the outcome of the results, and (c) increased skills of the participants to assess the impact of different alternatives tried. 

Ex. After completion of the experiment, the observations recorded have to be analysed using simple and appropriate tests which the farmers can apply and draw valid conclusions. One of such tests could be overlapping test where, simple bar diagrams are drawn for the mean scores.

Communication of results: Sharing results with all potential farmers is the next essential activity. Farmer to farmer communication has been found to be more effective. The rate of diffusion will be faster if this technique is encouraged. Therefore, encouraging farmer-to-farmer communication is very essential. Some of the other techniques, which are useful, are organizing field days, group meetings, workshops at field level, publications, etc. The important outcomes at this stage are, (a) enhanced farmer to farmer diffusion of ideas and technologies, (b) an increasing number of villages involve themselves in process of organised technology development, making use of the experience of other communities, and (c) a farmer-managed system of inter-village training and communication.

Experience of PTD in Karnataka Community Based Tank Management Project
The University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore has entered in to an agreement with the  Jala Samvardhane Yojana Sangha – a nodal agency of the Government of Karnataka to render the consultancy services to increase productivity of 1500 tank command areas in the central and eastern dry zones of Karnataka, under the auspices of the World Bank funded Karnataka Community Based Tank Management Project. As part of the consultancy contract, the University has been carrying out the agricultural development activities including PTD. In three years’ time (2003 to 2005), the University also introduced PTD process in 174 villages based on the problems identified in the crops paddy (77), sunflower (45), maize (15), groundnut (15), finger millet (3) and horticultural crops (19). The tank command area farmers, the staff representatives of community facilitation teams (NGOs), Department of Agriculture and University were involved in the PTD process. The important topics covered were (a) standardization of cultivation practices, weed management, simplification of sowing techniques, irrigation scheduling in aerobic rice cultivation, (b) integrated crop management approaches in sunflower, maize and finger millet (c) integrated pest and water management practices in groundnut and horticultural crops.

The significant outcome of PTD was standardization of cultivation practices for rice production under aerobic condition. The packages were first standardized in 10 hectares in 26 locations during 2003-04. Later, it spread to about 600 hectares in the project area by 2005-06. Similar results were also observed in maize, sunflower, groundnut and horticultural crops. The farmers as well as the project staff were enthusiastic in the process of experimentation at the village level. It has built the confidence of the field staff in technology identification / modification and dissemination. Hence, it proved to be an important approach to be tried by all those engaged in agricultural development process.

Conclusion

The participatory technology development process helps in identification of specific problem, search for alternative solutions to solve the problem, test the applicability of the alternative selected, and generate suitable techniques and practices to solve the existing problems. And this is done jointly by the farmers, extension functionaries and the scientists. Therefore, this process will cut short the time taken by the research system to identify the problem, conduct experiments and communicate results to the farmers through extension system.  Also, this is more acceptable to the farmers and field extension workers as they are also the partners in the technology development process. However, participatory technology development is not a substitute for station based research or extension worker-managed on-farm trials. It is a complementary process, which involves linking the powers and capabilities of agricultural science to the priorities and capabilities of farming communities to develop suitable technologies to the problems observed.

Reference

Nagaraja, N.,2003, Raithara kshethra pathashale anushthana margadarshi (farmers field schools implementation guidelines), Gayathri book company, Bangalore.

Nagaraja,N., 2004, Areneeraavari (aerobic) battada besayada anubhavagalu, Gayathri book company, Bangalore.