PARTICIPATORY MONITORING AND EVALUATION,THROUGH INDICATORS
-THE CASE STUDY OF SMALL PEASANT-PASTORAL COMMUNITIES,
ETHBARPALLY VILLAGE,K6Dm4 AGROECOSUBREGION,DECCAN PLATEAU,INDIA.
S.K.BALACHANDER AND POYYAMOLI. G*,
READER IN BOTANY,LOYOLA ACADEMY,SECUNDERABAD 500010,AP,INDIA .
*SALIM ALI SCHOOL OF ECOLOGY & ENVIRONMENTAL
SCIENCES,PONDICHERRY UNIVERSITY,PONDICHERRY ,605Q14,INDIA.
The Ethbarpalle village,is a traditional semi-arid peasant-pastoral landscape,in the peri-urban
fringes of Hyderabad metropolitan,located at Alt.612 SW,Lat.78.11.70,Long.17.17.40,in the
K6Dm4 agroecosubregion and Production System 9,in the Deccan plateau.
The methodology,sought was eclectic,participatory,blueprint vs process
approaches,Facilitatory in styles,and contexts,with fitness of function,as the norm,deciphered
at the end! The exploratory,experiencial action research,was done with Naturalistic
Inquiry,Multiple case study method,Focus group,Participatory Observation,as well as
qualitative Human-Ecology methods.
The case study included,units of analysis,a design,purposeful sampling,the apriori mode of
analysis,the nature of study questions,the study of propositions,the continuity of study
propositions,the time boundary,the boundary problem.A Rival hypothesis was framed. The
Focus groups were.the unni-sheep-fur carpet weavers
.small farmers in tomato trade
.herders and transpastoralists
.traditional/transitional farmers
The study,was done under residential uncertainity,such as market-trade,night transits,by
chance encounters and breaking the ice sessions,in tandem with surveys,and traditional
research.,juxtaposed with PRA/RRA,in the Human Ecology perspective.
The methodologies,were keeping in mind,the limits,of addressing to PRA,Pastoralism and
Human Ecology,acknowledging extreme limitations of.rapport building processes
.mixed gauging of informal institutional issues,such as shared usage,strengthened vs weakened
arguments,neighbourhood village/peri-urban farm house and city linkages,in terms of
penning,fertility barter,managing out of conflict with locals,newer options,in their own
dialectical tones,images,drawings,and relationships,as well as survival strategies,under waterland constraints,resource management,LKMS,and Herder’s mobility.
The objectives of PM &E,as discovered later,while demystifying the processes,were to-build institutional linkages (human)
-enpowerment of local stakeholders,in their own terms
-seek towards a process-oriented approach
-search for a first ever basis,to communicate with the marginalized,in terms of ground
realities(without papers,pens,and tapes!)
-to reinforce local capacities to assess problems and possibilities.
-evaluate the local situation analysis,in time & space,informally
Parallel to this,we focusssed through the issues of break-down,in the case-study ,as-Food-Energy Nexus
-entitlement mapping and analysis
-Livelihood analysis
-Institutional analysis(macro,meso,micro)
-process type indicators of change
-consequence or unknown indicators of change
The capture of multiple voices was in terms of a messy matrix of transience,an analytical
construct of the situation context-entitlement mapping processes,which indicates livelihoods
and environmental changes.
GRASS-ROOT INDICATORS
-Farmer’s risk avertion strategies
-Seasonal calendars
-Peasant-pastoralist’s knowledge of Bioresouce flow mapping
-Farmer’s rationale for transitional shifts of crops (Cotton suicides to Tomato Trade)
SURROGATIVE INDICATORS
-Participatory Tree Inventory and LKMS
-Participatory selection of study area(the microdeterminants of NGO,insiders and outsiders)
-Oral testimony of herder’s dwindling herd size
EXPERIENTIAL INDICATORS
-Unni carpet weaving as a livelihood-pastoral communities
-community herding,with transpastoralism
-Tomato growing and trade of marginalized communities-indices of transience
PERI-URBAN VULNERABILITY AND WELL-BEING INDICES
-Individual level
-Household level
-Community level
(1.Tomato and mixed farming communities 2.pastoral-peasant and transpastoral communities)
The above methodological innovations,could reveal,dynamics of transitions,rural-urban
linkages(in terms of flow of people,network of actors,goods,money,information),the farmer’s
ground realities,the social functions of stock-farming,subsistence security,their traditional
adaptive mechanisms of sustainability,complex issues of pastoral plannings,indices of
resilience,and much more.
The array of methods,fine-tuned to contexts,processes,could now be argued to be a fair
assessment of human-environmental relationalships,without scale confusions,on the pathways
towards (ongoing),viabilities of linkages,and interactions in the dynamic microniche,under
limitations and opportunities.In essence,it had been a learning experience,to redefine,several
pitfalls too!
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