Five insights
This agreement reflects an understanding among the core partners
at the completion point of the completion evaluation process to adopt
and use the learning and recommendations from the completion evaluation
in the implementation of the Andhra Pradesh Participatory Tribal Development
Project and in the design of new projects and programmes aimed at the
development of tribal people. The core partners included the Ministry
of Tribal Affairs of the Government of India, the Tribal Welfare Department
of the Government of Andhra Pradesh, the concerned ITDAs (Seethampeta,
Parvathipuram, Paderu, Rampachodavaram), the Development Cooperation Section
of the Embassy of The Netherlands in New Delhi, the Girijan Cooperative
Corporation, Outreach (an NGO), the National Institute for Agricultural
Extension Management, and IFAD (represented by the Asia and the Pacific
Division and the Office of Evaluation and Studies).
Participation and empowerment
When it was designed, the APTDP was a pioneer in stressing
community participation. In this sense, the project was unique in reaching
tribal groups and communities and was quite distinct from the conventional
sectoral and departmental approaches practised at the time.
The platform for participation that was developed by the
APTDP benefited from the experiences of other projects aimed at rural
development and poverty alleviation, including the SHG-model experimented
in the IFAD-supported Tamil Nadu Women's Development Project. The other
institutions created to promote participatory development included village
development committees, VTDAs, grain banks and various interest groups
linked to specific activities (for example, irrigation, soil conservation
and health), as well as the recruitment of agricultural consultants. In
addition, one novel concept introduced by the GCC was the formation of
community coordination teams consisting of groups of dedicated young professionals
who lived in tribal villages to assist in social mobilization, awareness-building
and the identification of needs and priorities around which development
interventions could be built.
Overall, the project has brought about changes in the tribal
development scene by creating space during implementation for a multi-stakeholder
approach with a specific focus on tribal people. One achievement has been
the shift in focus from the limited objective of increasing employment
opportunities through labour-intensive schemes to the objective of programme
management that is initiated, executed and monitored by the community
and of the empowerment of tribal people as partners in the improvement
of their own natural resource base and means of livelihood. By and large,
communities have responded positively to this approach, demonstrating
that, with appropriate support, many of the key issues afflicting the
welfare of tribal peoples may be resolved. For example, in spite of the
fluctuations in the level of credit delivery, the propensity to save has
now become well established among tribal people through the creation of
thrift and credit groups.
However, despite good progress in the effort to institutionalize
participatory approaches, the concept of participation has been differently
understood by different people (in the Government's Tribal Welfare Department,
in GCC, among project officers and the staff in the ITDAs, and elsewhere)
at different times. Hence, the participation strategies applied were different
among the various ITDAs depending largely on the perceptions of the project
officers and related staff in a given period. Due to the short tenure
of project officers and other government staff, there was inadequate continuity
in approaches and in the emphasis on community participation. It must
also be stated that the sequencing of project initiatives was not carried
out in a manner likely to reinforce community participation. For example,
the investments in natural resource development were not linked to the
building of tribal institutions and the strengthening of the institutions
that would eventually take responsibility for the management of the natural
resource base.
Moreover, participation was invariably linked with an activity.
The strategy aimed at involving tribals in, for example, the execution
of irrigation schemes, horticulture development, soil conservation initiatives,
or savings and credit activities. Thus, the APTDP was set up in such a
way that social mobilization and community participation were primarily
seen as a mechanism to prepare people for the delivery of services. Using
participation as an independent process mainly aimed at empowerment was
not a central feature in the APTDP. Nor was this concept fully internalized
by the executing agencies, whose thinking was by and large driven by the
administrative and bureaucratic practices of the time, which emphasized
the intensive involvement of state structures in development activities.
More could have been achieved in terms of social mobilization. IFAD and
the cooperating institution strongly advocated the need for greater participation,
but they may have underestimated the time and interaction required for
the new thinking to take root in Government-led programmes, such as the
APTDP. Attempts were made to institute community coordination teams at
the village level and to recruit agricultural consultants and others to
mobilize, motivate, organize and train tribal people. However, the results
were moderate for a number of reasons, including the need for more time
than was envisaged to develop social mobilization processes. Furthermore,
executing agencies require greater incentives to institutionalize structures
to support participatory development processes that can gradually lead
to the transfer of authority 'downwards'. The evaluation concluded that
effective social mobilization is crucial for building participation, and
for this it is essential to understand how traditional societies function.
Finally, the evaluation noted that there is room for involving competent
NGOs in the process from an early stage.
Nevertheless, even the limited concept of participation
promoted through the APTDP has been extremely important, as it is has
provided a stepping stone for future development programmes and activities.
Participation has contributed positively to changes in social relationships
not only within the state and at the grass roots and grass-roots institutions,
but also among the tribal people themselves, as well as between tribal
people and other actors in the informal economy, such as moneylenders,
traders and other service providers. The APTDP also assisted in initiating
a wave of change in administrative and bureaucratic behaviour, making
it more open to the fact that sustainable development is best achieved
from the 'bottom'.
The evaluation recognizes that the
state, too, has a crucial and concurrent role to play in participatory
processes, in particular by promoting a favourable environment that can
lead to the erosion of the 'dependency culture' that is deeply rooted
in tribal societies, which are accustomed to receiving services and resources
from the 'top'. This 'dependency' not only suggests the need to develop
self-reliant tribal communities that take charge of their own decisions
and their own resource allocation, but also refers to the 'dependency'
that has arisen in the Government apparatus and among Government officers
supporting tribal development, that is, the project officers, ITDA staff
and others whose performance is largely assessed on the basis of the 'results
achieved' in tribal development. Therefore, project-related staff often
focus on targets and output achievements. Consequently, their approaches
do not necessarily favour more open and lasting participatory development,
which, by the nature of the concept, requires a longer term investment
and is a more laborious process, since the necessary incentives and motivations
are lacking. It is therefore important to build a culture in which people
are not so much accountable for the 'results achieved', since results
are not exclusively in the hands of a single person or institution, but
are accountable for their ability to 'manage in order to achieve results'.
In sum, overcoming the dependency culture requires a paradigm shift whereby
needs are addressed from both angles.
Recommendations
- Participation should not be confined only to specific activities.
Instead, it is necessary to devote attention to local-level institutional
development in order to promote grass-roots participation and empowerment
following the 'development ladder approach'. This could consist of the
institutionalization of SHGs, village development committees and cluster-level
(apex) organizations of village development committees, which should
all be organically linked, nurtured and facilitated. In this way, participation
will not be merely a process determined from the top into which those
below are involved.
- Participation as a means of empowerment does not involve only the
delegation of the powers of project functionaries. It includes the entrustment
of functions, funds and control to participatory groups at the local
level. The building of groups and the development of institutions that
are nurtured over a period of time result in a successful empowerment
process.
- Participatory processes can be better sustained beyond the project
period if they are institutionalized within existing structures and
programmes. This lesson was established during the IFAD Country Programme
Review and Evaluation in Viet Nam (2000).
- Training and capability development for social mobilization should
be an integral and regular aspect of project design and implementation.
They should not be a one-time affair or training modules implemented
in an ad-hoc manner. Given the limited quality of the training institutions
(specific to tribal scenarios) in Andhra Pradesh, adequate investments
for the development of resource persons, resource materials and training
methodologies must be provided on a long-term basis. The institutionalization
of the expertise and training skills generated needs to be given careful
attention so that the capabilities that are developed become sustained.
- The project design should make provision for the involvement of competent
NGOs in activities such as the social mobilization at the grass roots,
awareness-building and the training of tribal people, as well as in
service provision in selected areas depending on the comparative advantage
of the NGO. It is recommended that NGOs be identified and selected during
the project design process, so that different project partners are aware
of each others roles and responsibilities. Selected NGOs should become
part of the design process, following a thorough capacity assessment
of each institution.
- Supervision missions have played an important role in changing administrative
behaviour and in providing implementation support. It is extremely important
that the composition of supervision missions is based on specific project
requirements and that adequate financial resources are available for
this activity.
Building community institutions
Building community institutions was central to the strategy
of the APTDP. Such an institutional capacity was perceived as the engine
for the participatory planning, implementation, maintenance, ownership
and sustainability of activities. The APTDP established a variety of local-level
institutions, including SHGs, cluster-level associations of SHGs, user
groups/village development committees (such as for education, health,
irrigation and grain banks) and a nodal institution in the form of VTDAs.
The latter were conceived on the one hand as the forum for the expression
of community priorities and concerns and on the other hand as a means
of delivering projects and programmes to the communities. The leaders
and members of VTDAs were chosen by the communities as their representatives,
and generally this selection required the approval of the traditional
councils of elders, so that the relationship between the new and the old
did exist, albeit on an informal basis.
The performance of the various institutions varied widely
from village to village, depending largely on the level and regularity
of project inputs, both economic and motivational. The activities of the
committees, often including VTDA, came to focus on a particular individual,
and in many cases committees effectively consisted only of this one individual.
The chief function of the leader of VTDA, who in general was the most
quick-witted and articulate of the young men, was in effect to act as
a spokesperson for the village, but VTDA rarely developed into a genuine
forum as it had been designed to do. It was usual for the VTDA leader
to consult the village elders (the traditional authority) before agreeing
to or promoting a particular scheme, which indicates that the collective
authority of the village still resided with the elders. It should be pointed
out that VTDA did serve an important purpose during the operation of the
project by acting as two-way link between the community on the one hand
and ITDA on the other, and after project completion there have been signs
that this function has continued. It is the leader of VTDA, for example,
who is responsible for conveying the requests and petitions of the villagers
to ITDA, but no reports - not the United Nations Office for Project Services'
supervision reports, nor project completion reports, nor the Mid-Term
Review - considered that VTDAs had developed into a sustainable institution.
The activities of the various sectoral committees also
tended to revolve around a single individual and, often, around a single
issue. In several villages, for example, the 'education committee' consisted
of one person who had accepted responsibility for ensuring that the children
all attended school and to get the non-attenders to return to school.
The health committee often did not operate at all, and its intended functions
were being carried out by the community health worker. Again, it is important
to recognize that these phenomena are not necessarily a sign of failure,
but they are far from what was originally envisaged and suggest that the
design of these institutions was ambitious and complex. In the case of
water users groups, which have a crucial task in maintaining and repairing
the irrigation systems, the evidence indicates that this task was not
carried out in the formal and regular way that the project had intended.
The SHGs generally experienced an initial period of activity and enthusiasm
that later waned, partly because they lacked incentives after they had
obtained the matching grant, but also because of a lack of sustained guidance
and motivation from the outside.
A factor to be noted is that the APTDP lacked a coherent
strategy to ensure the convergence of community institutions with the
traditional power structure on the one side and with Government institutions
on the other. The existence of such parallel institutional structures
may create difficulties in achieving better bargaining power for the community
and in fostering genuine participatory development. The building of community
institutions that allow tribals to become self-reliant and to reduce their
dependency on external institutions that have provided support for years
is a process that requires time, a continuity of efforts and sustainable
support mechanisms. Therefore, although the project brought about changes
in attitude among development workers at all levels in terms of the need
to promote effective local institutions, further work is required in order
to create strong, lasting community institutions.
Recommendations
- It is necessary to examine the roles and relationships in traditional
societies, as well as the traditional community institutional arrangements
that exist. In particular, the nature of traditional authorities must
be systematically investigated, and the necessary links between new
and old institutions explicitly recognized, in order to avoid the emergence
of parallel and potentially divisive structures.
- Villages with strong traditional institutions find it easier to internalize
new approaches and technologies, as well as to upgrade their knowledge.
Therefore, in order to obtain greater impact, the intensity of project
delivery needs to be provided based on the local institutional capacity
available at the village level, rather than being predetermined and
delivered in an equal manner across all villages.
- The design of future projects in this regard should be more realistic
about the formal extent of community involvement. Small communities
with no previous experience of formal institutions are unlikely to support
a number of active committees. Therefore, it is fundamental to rationalize
the formation of village development committees, prioritizing those
that respond to the critical village-level requirements.
- NGOs must be involved in the creation and support of nascent institutions.
- The sustainability of community institutions must be viewed in terms
of a much longer time-scale than simply the seven years of project duration.
Further, such community institutions should not be designed only for
service delivery or acceptance purposes, but should be seen more broadly
as platforms for community participation and empowerment.
The relationship between protest movements
and development projects
The APTDP offers an unusual, possibly unique opportunity
to examine the role IFAD can play in conflict resolution, in particular
since, because of it, one can assess the relationship between a radical
protest movement, Naxalism, and the operation of a participatory development
project in tribal areas. During the 1970s and 1980s, the project area
witnessed a campaign of varying intensity mounted by the PWG, which in
its early stages at least appears to have been motivated by a genuine
desire to end the exploitation of tribal peoples and to achieve for them
a measure of social justice in terms of land, resources and opportunities.
At that time, the PWG served to highlight the problems of the tribal people
and the urgent need for measures to protect them, in particular by putting
an end to the alienation of their tribal lands and their exploitation
by unscrupulous moneylenders and middlemen.
What made the APTDP different from other interventions
aimed at the advancement of tribal people? Primarily, one must record
that the APTDP was the first project exclusively devoted to the development
of tribal people that was supported by an international organization in
Andhra Pradesh. The mere involvement of IFAD in such a sensitive area
was seen as a serious effort by the Government to respond to tribal disaffection
and exploitation. IFAD provided a silent bridging leadership, playing
the role of a facilitator that could be trusted and was committed to furthering
the interests of the tribal communities.
It is not easy to identify which aspects of the project
most impressed the PWG, but they appear to have appreciated in particular
the mechanism for the involvement of VTDAs in participatory contract procedures
for the construction of irrigation and soil conservation works and related
activities. This innovation was eventually adopted across the entire state
in all tribal areas through a Government order that made the PWG realize
that serious efforts were being undertaken to uplift the overall well-being
of tribal people. The PWG also appreciated that APTDP attempted to depart
from the traditional top-down, bureaucratic model of development and provided
an alternative that promoted empowerment and transferred decision-making,
development planning, implementation and ownership to the tribals. This
is illustrated by several instruments pioneered by the project that allowed
for deeper beneficiary participation and self-determination, such as the
creation of community coordinator teams, VTDAs, SHGs, participatory contract
procedures, specific interest groups and village development committees.
IFAD's facilitation role significantly contributed to
raising awareness within the Government and civil service cadres of the
necessity of dealing with the protest movement in a judicious manner based
on a determination to understand the root causes of the protest movement
and to find ways to address them rapidly and systematically. IFAD assisted
in initiating a process of change in bureaucratic attitudes that demanded
more of a listening and partnership-oriented stance in terms of the development
of the girijans, as well as emphasizing the need to address the concerns
of the movement through social and economic advancement measures, as well
as through a law-and-order approach. For instance, the lack of access
to land was a prime grievance of the tribal people that had led them to
support the Naxalite movement. The same issue is one of the determining
factors behind the Tamil insurgency in Sri Lanka (IFAD Country Programme
Evaluation of Sri Lanka, 2001). Consequently, the APTDP's advocacy role
led the Government to distribute land to tribal people in the Bhadrachalam
and other ITDAs. The APTDP brought in a fresh approach and a new mind-set
within the Government and civil service in tackling a conflict that had
created intense disruption in the people's daily lives.
There has apparently been a corresponding change in the
Naxalite movement itself, with the departure of many of the idealistic
cadres of earlier times, so that the movement now appears to be less one
of educated ideologues and more a focus for frustrated and unemployed
youth. This may also be partly attributed to IFAD and the APTDP. In its
earlier days, the PWG gained momentum because of the support of disenchanted
tribal people who were being obliged to live in abject poverty and who
looked up to the PWG as a possible highway to break out of their misery.
However, the APTDP brought about changes in and the development of ITDAs,
thereby creating an atmosphere of optimism and empowerment and leading
the tribal people gradually to distance themselves from the PWG, thus
weakening the Naxalite movement in the project area.
The APTDP also instigated better operations by moneylenders,
contractors and other private service providers in the tribal areas. Through
its commitment to uplifting the livelihoods of tribal people, the APTDP
provided the PWG with a yardstick to measure and monitor the operations
of the informal sector. Moneylenders, contractors, traders and others
were compelled to provide better deals to tribal people in terms of interest
rates and farm-gate prices for produce in order to avoid reprisals from
the PWG. This has forced out a sizeable number of informal operators in
the project area, in particular those whose prime objective was their
own personal enrichment at the expense of tribal people. In fact, the
APTDP paved the way for the Government to ban contractors from the tribal
areas, ordering that all works should be executed by village-level SHGs.
Recommendations
- The current notion of tribal development is largely based on 'area
development' and 'community participation'. That there are different
landholding groups or classes, that there are big and small tribes in
each village, or mandal, or district, that women have to be treated
specifically are all issues that need to be fully built into the philosophy
of tribal development. This will contribute to more equitable and sustainable
development.
- Serious and urgent measures must be taken by the Government to maintain
the physical and social assets created under the APTDP. In terms of
natural resource management, as well as social programmes, much has
been achieved, but the achievements are still fragile. In order to be
sustainable, further investment in infrastructure, training programmes
and adaptive research is essential. It is also essential that the levels
of competence and commitment of the senior officers, in particular the
ITDA project officers, be maintained.
- The Government must continue its commitment to participatory approaches
to development programmes and to a step-wise transfer of decision-making
to the local level, with a concurrent emphasis on capacity-building.
Exit strategy and post-project monitoring
The lessons and recommendations under this heading have
been repeatedly observed through a series of evaluations of IFAD-supported
projects undertaken in the past few years, not only projects in India,
but also in other countries and regions. Thus, it is common to find projects
that have been designed and implemented with limited attention to a strategic
phase-out so as to ensure continuity in institutional support, processes
and resources to achieve the consolidation of investments, leading ultimately
to enhanced results and a lasting impact. More often than not, IFAD has
withdrawn its presence and involvement after the project closing date,
leaving its partners at country level and primarily those at the grass-roots
level in a state of disarray. However, this primary issue is not one that
IFAD alone must reflect upon. The other main partners involved in development
interventions must also address it.
The phasing out of the APTDP was not designed or even
planned for. The sustainability of institutions and their socio-economic
significance depend basically upon the stream of benefits and the support
structures left in the wake of withdrawal. The use of social-fund mechanisms
like savings and thrift groups and community health initiatives, which
are so effective for sustaining initiatives, were not conceptualized and
carried further. Participatory groups and their organizations were not
well integrated into apex institutions or federations, so that they could
not have continued as support organizations at the village and cluster
levels.
The absence of a planned withdrawal of the Fund and related
institutions, such as the United Nations Office for Project Services,
which provided technical support through supervision missions, and the
lack of a capability of community institutions to assume responsibility
for their own development are a cause for concern. For example, soon after
project closure, the Government of Andhra Pradesh banned daily wage and
contract appointments among local-level community functionaries, who were
deeply distressed by this step. Overall, the project should have left
behind people-centred, community-driven institutions at the village, mandal
and ITDA levels. A little more organizational and financial support for
the community-participation structures already established would have
created an alternative paradigm to alleviate the excessive dependence
upon ITDAs and their staff, thereby further fostering the participatory
process and overall development.
The evaluation experience of the IFAD-supported Tamil
Nadu Women's Development Project (1999) confirms the need for the articulation
of a post-completion strategy. The Tamil Nadu Women's Development Project
is recognized as a highly successful intervention that promoted innovative
approaches to empowerment, capacity-building and income generation. After
project closure (December 1998), the project was scaled up and replicated
in all the districts of Tamil Nadu by the state government. Nevertheless,
it was clear that the withdrawal of IFAD had created a vacuum that exposed
the project and its implementing institutions to external pressures, including
the pressures from the bureaucracy and from politicians. The project could
no longer benefit from IFAD's support in shielding off undue interference,
ensuring neutrality and minimizing delays, for instance in the selection
of NGOs or of commercial banks that could become involved in project activities.
The Tamil Nadu Women's Development Project illustrates that, even when
a project is regarded as successful, there is a need for an appropriate
degree of IFAD stewardship after project completion.
It was fortunate that
the APTDP was followed up by a project (the Andhra Pradesh Participatory
Tribal Development Project) funded by IFAD that covered other districts
in Andhra Pradesh. The follow-up project was entrusted to the same executing
agency (the Tribal Welfare Department of the Government of Andhra Pradesh).
This provided some continuity in a few areas, but by no means provided
a substitute for a clear 'exist strategy'. In those cases where a second-phase
project is a 'second phase' in a more complete sense (that is, in terms
of area coverage, the target groups and interventions), a phasing-out
plan would still be required at the end of the 'first phase'.
Recommendations
- It is necessary to devote serious attention during project design
to provision for the development of a post-project completion plan,
including the identification of institutional responsibilities and roles.
- There is a need for immediate assistance by IFAD and the state in
order to consolidate the achievements and the impact of the APTDP, particularly
with respect to capacity-building among the communities and their institutions.
This would require the allocation of additional resources particularly
devoted to social mobilization and training.
- The Fund's continued assistance during the post-project period is
often critical. This task would be facilitated by the establishment
of a post-completion monitoring system to identify important issues
requiring IFAD follow-up and guidance. Such post-completion monitoring
may highlight the need to undertake specific follow-up studies in areas
that offer potential for knowledge generation and to document field-level
innovations that can be further tested, as well as to contribute to
IFAD's impact-monitoring activities. In this regard, future project
designs might involve the creation of special funds for institution-building
for this purpose. This should be regarded as an integral part of design,
and, if needed, the Fund should provide post-project grants to ensure
the that such activities are undertaken. IFAD could explore the possibility
of using the NGO-Extended Cooperation Programme or the technical assistance
grant mechanism for this purpose.
Food decurity, Podu farming
and the environment
In terms of natural resource management, the most significant
activity of the project has been the attempt to use settled irrigated
agricultural systems to replace the traditional methods of shifting (podu)
cultivation. The aim is to improve household food security through the
cultivation of high-yielding paddy rice and horticultural crops, as well
as to protect the environment against deforestation and soil erosion.
This necessitates radical changes in patterns and methods of farming and
the introduction of farming systems of which the girijans have in general
little or no experience. The project 'package' in this respect thus includes
training programmes and expert supervision, as well as inputs such as
seeds, fertilizer and saplings.
The physical results of the natural resources component
have generally matched or exceeded targets, with a sixfold increase in
the areas irrigated and the plantation of about 40 000 ha for horticultural
crops. Total food production in the project area has increased by an estimated
500% during the project life. However, the figures mask important problems,
including the poor maintenance of irrigation systems, a lack of sufficient
know-how regarding horticultural techniques and, perhaps most significantly,
increased vulnerability to drought because of the dependence on irrigated
agriculture at the expense of traditional techniques that included built-in
measures to counteract periodic drought conditions. When questioned, the
farmers admitted that they were continuing podu cultivation as a fall-back
mechanism, or that they would revive it if necessary. The attitude of
the authorities to this seems to have been flexible in view of the difficult
circumstances.
What needs to be recognized is the scale of the change
that is involved in the replacement of a tried-and-tested agricultural
pattern by methods requiring different techniques, different seasonal
patterns and a different attitude towards natural resources. The key factor
here is the need for effective training, guidance and adaptive research
in order to support and sustain the transformation. The training programmes
need to extend to the trainers, as well as to the trainees, because many
of the line department officials have little experience either of tribal
communities, or of upland agriculture under the local climatic and geophysical
conditions. The programmes also need to be regular and ongoing. The problems
involved in a mature cashew orchard are not those involved in a newly
planted orchard, and the techniques employed in second-crop cultivation
are not identical to those employed in a one-crop system. Fertilizer needs
to be supplied, but also to be correctly applied. The work of line departments
has been made difficult by frequent changes in personnel and an emphasis
on formal statistically verifiable targets. Adaptive research appears
to have concentrated too much on commodity-centred activities and not
enough on the efficient utilization of natural resources. In addition,
the planting of cashew appears to have been regarded as a panacea, resulting
in cashew cultivation in unsuitable soils and microclimates. The effects
of this can be observed especially in the higher altitudes of the Paderu
ITDA.
Recommendations
- Emphasis needs to be given to preliminary research concerning the
choice of horticultural crops in particular areas. Although the project
- in theory at least - left the final choice of crop to the villagers,
it is clearly vital that the alternatives offered should include only
those crops that have proved successful in the particular soil, altitude
and climate conditions. Since they have no experience in the cultivation
of these crops, the farmers will inevitably (and rightly) be influenced
by agricultural officials in this respect. For example, in the Paderu
ITDA, given the excellent climatic and agro-ecological conditions, large
areas have recently been put under coffee plantation, and even a larger
amount of area has been covered with shade-bearing trees. The state
government should undertake special initiatives and intensify coffee
plantation. Coffee has proved to be very popular with tribal communities
and has generated greater economic returns. There has also been a consequential
reduction in podu, resulting in positive gains for the environment,
also because of the increased forest coverage.
- The training of the trainers is the first requirement in the training
programmes, at least in terms of timing. This training must take account
of the fact that the line department officials themselves may have little
knowledge either of local conditions, or of tribal societies. Thus,
the content of the training must involve the basics in these respects.
At the same time, the officials must understand that their authority
as experts depends on the genuine level of their expertise in the particular
conditions in which they are operating. In other words, their expertise
is not a function of their rank, but must be demonstrated.
- The value of adaptive research can only be proved by results in the
field, where the criteria will not be technical or academic, but practical.
Thus, adaptive research must be applied and tested at village level,
and this in turn depends on a well-trained and vigorous extension service.
At present, the extension services under the APTDP are undermanned and
undertrained, which suggests that insufficient attention has been given
to this critical component of natural resource management in circumstances
in which a radical agricultural transformation is being attempted.
