Scientific Perceptions and Community Responses in a Participatory Water Management Endeavor

Abstract

People and technology are the two major ingredients considered to enhance benefits and provide opportunities in farming system. Perfect blending of these ingredients not only leads to maximize the agricultural production but also helps in improving livelihood. Openhanded efforts have been initiated to understand farm resources, production constraints and support services in order to suggest need based and cost effective technologies/practices, which can be adopted by the farmers employing participatory approach without or least financial incentivization. This approach is in contrast to earlier approaches where quality inputs and incentives are provided by project implementing agencies to promote technologies/practices. As in the earlier approach the farmer’s involvement in planning and implementation is poor, introduction of participatory process and technologies/practices remains no longer sustainable and once the financial support from the project area is withdrawn farmers’ follow the same age old traditional practices. This led to realization that perspectives of local people’s needs to be in the center of development, research and extension efforts, if substantial impact is to be made. The objective of this paper is to share the experiences of a multi disciplinary and multi institutional participatory approach undertaken, in ICAR-DFID collaborative project in India, to improve livelihood of community including poorest of the poor through integrated land and water management. The purpose here is to establish a more differentiated communication and a conceptual framework, which can help researchers and practitioners to make better choices and more informed decisions when designing their research, communication and dissemination approaches.