Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
the area. Participants were encouraged to graph additional factors deemed important
or necessary to explain the trends.
3.2.4.7
transect Walks
Transect walks (Kabutha et al., 1993; Chambers, 1994) involved walking along pre-
defined routes in the study area and recording differences in soils, land uses, vegeta-
tion, crops, livestock, and use of technologies. The aim was to visually appraise the
status of the village and its resources to better identify and assess problems, solutions,
and opportunities. Findings were recorded in a representational diagram, showing a
cross section of the study site along the transect route and the extent of ecological,
cultural, or economic subzones within the study site. Differences between zones in
terms of problems and opportunities were also highlighted in the diagram. Transects
were carried out by a team of local (about four) and external participants (usually
two). In this study, they combined semistructured and unstructured interviews with
residents and farmers along the route. Two to four routes were selected (depending
on the size of the study site and zoning pattern) based on the main geophysical and
social factors identified in the mapping exercise.
3.2.4.8
semistructured Interviews
The objectives of SSIs (Chambers, 1994; Rietbergen-McCracken and Narayan, 1998)
were (1) to learn about a particular situation or group in detail, (2) to discuss issues
that would have been difficult to address using other methods, and (3) to reveal per-
sonal perspectives on particular topics. SSIs, also called conversational interviews,
were used in several contexts in this study. The first was in the description of villages
and their problems, coping strategies, and opportunities. These SSIs were carried out
together with the transect walks. Interviewees in this case were individual commu-
nity members and farmers selected through a stratified sampling process based on
wealth ranking and household characteristics such as size and gender of household
head, supplied by the participants in the mapping exercise.
In other applications, interviewees were special interest groups or key infor-
mants, depending on the purpose of the interview. In all cases, interviewers were
provided with a checklist of topics as a guideline. Interviewers were asked to remain
conversational enough to allow participants to introduce and discuss issues that they
deemed relevant. In some cases, visual-aid-based methods were used as opposed
to the more traditional verbal methods. Visual aids were used more often in group
interviews and in the application of soft system methodology. Interviews were con-
ducted by a team of two to four people in an informal setting that allowed mixing
of questions and discussion while avoiding leading questions, questions with yes-no
answers, and value judgments. These interviews were restricted to 45 minutes or less
(Theis and Grady, 1991).
3.2.4.9
seasonal calendars
Seasonal calendars (Theis and Grady, 1991; Kabutha et al., 1993; Rietbergen-
McCracken and Narayan, 1998) were diagrams showing perceived annual trends
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