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Seer's Experience in Participatory Agriculture and Natural Resource
Management Click on project title for description
- National Drainage
Program, 1997-2004
- Balochistan
Natural Resource Management Project- Supervision, Mid-term Review &
Restructuring, 1998-2000
- Institutional
Assessment of the Idara-e-Kissan - a self- supporting small farmers and
land less livestock keepers organization, 2000
- Balochistan
Community Irrigation and Agriculture Project, 1997-1999
- ADB Regional
Facilitating Capacity Building and Participation Activities Project,
1998
- Pakistan
Environment Protection and Resource Conservation Project, 1997
- Pat Feeder Canal
Command Area Development Project- Community Organization Evaluation 1997
- ADB Irrigation
Management Project -- the handing over of canal distributaries to
farmers, 1996-1997
- Final Evaluation
of the Pakistan Command Water Management Project, 1992
- Swabi Irrigated
Agriculture Project (SIA P) -- Operational Plan for Action Research,
1991
- Community
Development Project Design -- Islamabad Capital Territory, 1993
- Spatial and Social
Appraisal of Poppy Growing Valleys-Dir District Development Project ,
1992
- Water Management
Specialist from a Sociological Perspective -- Curricula Development,
1991
- Evaluation of
ADB's Second On-Farm Water Management Project, 1993
- A Framework for
Social Aspects of Drainage and Waterlogging Research in Pakistan, 1995
- Third Punjab
On-Farm Water Management Project Design, 1993
- Operationalization of
Participatory Approach -- Dir District Development Project, 1993
- National On-Farm
Water Management Project -- OECF Assisted, 1993-1998
- Assessment of
Community Water Management in the Hill Torrents of Dera Ghazi Khan, 1994
- Sociology of the
Watercourse & Irrigation Communities on the Lower Bari Doab Canal,
1994
The National Drainage
Program's objective is to restore the sustainability of environmentally
sound irrigated agriculture in Pakistan. The components to meet these
objectives are: a) institutional reform b) drainage investments c)
monitoring research and studies. Seer is part of the seven member
international and national consortium that is awarded the engineering
supervision contract. Specifically, as an institution development and
social science firm, Seer provides social organizers, economists and
agronomists to work on the feasibility, implementation and monitoring of
the investment sub-projects in all four provinces.
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The Balochistan
Government commissions a preparatory mission to assess the World Bank
funded Natural Resource Management Project and consolidate recommendations
for the mid term review by the Bank. A Seer director provides the
sociological input and closely reviews the operations of the Balochistan
Forestry Department, their performance and approach while implementing the
Sand Dune Stabilization, Conservation of the Juniper Forest, Introduction
of the Four Winged Salt-bush and Chiltan National Park components.
Recommendations for the extent and approach to involve the communities in
all these components are consolidated and operationalized when Seer is
later contracted by the Bank to participate on the restructuring mission.
A strategy to institutionalize participatory capacity within the
department on a sustained basis is also developed during this mission.
Seer staff continues to participate in Bank supervision missions to the
project till finalizing the Implementation Completion Report.
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Seer is contracted by GTZ to conduct an institutional assessment
of the Idara-e-Kissan, a self- supporting organization of small farmers
and land less livestock keepers that emerged from the Patokki Livestock
Project. Since 1992, Idara-e-Kissan continues to develop as a
self-financed, independent farmer's organization with sufficient profits
to support development service infrastructure and activities to improve
livestock production and increase income. The purpose of the assignment is
to describe the main principles of such an approach and provide options
for replication elsewhere. IK's success comes from ensuring transparency,
reliability and due diligence in operations at all levels, a matter of
fact orientation to recruitment and performance, a leveled playing field
for a corporate farmers entity with governmental patronage, participation
and support but not control.
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Seer is contracted by the World Bank to participate in
periodic supervision missions for the social mobilization and community
participation aspects of this project. Remote and diverse communities of
small farmers across Balochistan apply to qualify for substantial
improvement of their existing irrigation systems by demonstrating self
help and organizational capacity, facilitated by project staff. The focus
of the supervision is directing project staff and organization towards the
development of farmer's organizations beyond contributing funds and labor
during construction works, with a clear vision for sustaining with their
own resources the valuable infrastructure and increased agricultural
livelihood they have acquired through public funds.
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Seer is commissioned because of
its successful involvement with the design of the Punjab Farmer Managed
Irrigation Project, to reassess extensively the views, needs and
preferences of the stakeholder groups though this regional project of the
Asian Development Bank. In particular, the commitment and willingness of
the stakeholders to participate in the proposed farmer organizations and
their receptiveness to physical changes in the irrigation system designed
to improve performance is assessed. Field staff of the implementing agency
participates in order for them to understand the needs and views of the
farming community, to appreciate the need for a change process and to
engender support and commitment for the farmer management concept.
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Seer staff participates on the World Bank supervision
mission of the project for supporting the mission leader on participatory
and community involvement aspects of the coast line rehabilitation sub
project in Sindh and the Bhimber Upland Rehabilitation Project in Azad
Jammu Kashmir. Recommendations focus improved implementation and measures
to strengthen capacity within the respective Forestry Departments for
participatory natural resource management.
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A Seer Director serves as a
member of the Asian Development Bank /International Food and Agriculture
Development Agency Review Mission May 20th - 27th. 1997 and closely
supports the mission leader in making proposals to ensure an extension
system responsive to small holder needs and a utilization of project
resources for on farm improvement in an equitable manner. A Special
Evaluation of the Community Organization Component implemented by
Balochistan Rural Support Program for the project is conducted.
Recommendations focus on means to first address the more immediate
substantial social spatial and cropping intensity changes expected as a
direct impact from the minor canal redesign and increased water
availability.
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Developing a curricula for a Master's
program in Water Management, The Pak Holland Water Management Project at
the NWFP Agriculture University contracted with Seer to sketch an ideal
profile of a water management expert from the social science perspective.
This profile is based on a series of analysis ranging from the career
pattern and prevailing organization structure of the On-Farm bureaucracy,
to goal setting for irrigation water management in both the large canals
of the Indus System and in traditional communal systems outside the Indus
Basin. Central to the profile is the ability of the future water
management expert to learn from and work with the farmer.
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Under contract with the Asian Development Bank, Manila,
Seer fielded a three-member evaluation team to evaluate the innovative
components of the Second On-Farm Water Management Project in the Punjab.
The Water Management Specialist assessed the design, construction,
maintenance organization and performance of the Pilot Project for On-Farm
drainage systems, covering an area of five watercourse commands in a
waterlogged area on the Muzaffargarh Canal in southern Punjab.
Recommendations for improvement and replication were made. The
Agriculturist on the team carried out a review of the approach,
effectiveness and implementation arrangements for the program of
demonstration farms and centers. Recommendations were provided on how to
make the program relevant to small farmers and facilitate the adoption of
improved irrigation agronomy practices by them. The Sociologist primarily
evaluated 10 watercourse commands on which community tubewells were
provided by the project as a means to strengthen the Water Users'
Associations. Factors for failure and success of the community management
of collective tubewells were highlighted.
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Seer was asked to propose a strategy to
achieve a paradigmatic shift "from things to people" in drainage and
waterlogging research by the Netherlands-assisted project at the
International Waterlogging and Salinity Research Institute, Lahore. Seer's
proposals, grounded in the conclusions of a workshop of concerned
professionals and institutions, included approaches for farmer involvement
in a participatory action research program, and institutional
prerequisites for initiating the paradigmatic shift in drainage research.
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Under a contract with the Asian Development Bank, Manila, for a
third loan to the Punjab Government in On-Farm water management, the Seer
team made recommendations for farmer training, organization of agriculture
department field teams for implementation, and an assessment of the
readiness of and possible benefits to the target population. An extensive
survey of two major canal systems -- the Bahwalpur Desert and the Abbasia
system -- was conducted by Seer, which accessed a wide range of irrigation
communities in the Bahawalpur and Rahimyar Khan districts.
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Recognizing the usefulness of the
spatial and social organizational assessment of the seven poppy growing
valleys, UNDCP contracted the Seer institutional analyst to develop and
transfer to relevant project staff on-site an approach to operationalize
participation of the communities in the Panjkora valleys. The method
developed was based on identifying community through the groups that
constituted it; drawing up with their participation an inventory of their
land, water and forest resources; identifying areas of common interest;
seeking consensus for project interventions of mutual benefit; and
developing plans for implementation by the community. Together with the
line agencies, keeping in view their constraints, mechanisms were
identified to successfully implement the approach, particularly for
irrigation water management.
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The OECF-assisted OFWM project being implemented in all the
provinces of Pakistan and the federally-administered tribal areas, has
been contracted to a consortium led by Halcrow, which includes Sebcon.
Sebcon has subcontracted their entire level of effort covering the
agronomy and farmers' participation components to Seer. Seer' s irrigation
sociologist and agronomist are providing a total of 108 man months of
principal advisory assistance to the Irrigation Agronomy Field Teams
working on canal and tubewell systems nationwide. Seer staff working with
the Halcrow team are developing successful approaches for the
establishment and operation of demonstration centers and model farms and
are seeking ways for organizing and orienting water users to carry out
their tasks with minimum government input and assistance.
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KFW and Wapda commissioned an
additional study under their DG Khan SCARP Feasibility Project to assess
the viability of flood protection measures on hill torrents west of the DG
Khan canal. The AHT-NESPAK joint venture subcontracted a vital portion of
this additional study to Seer. The study required among other aspects an
examination of the impact of the proposed structural measures on
traditional water rights and the present methods employed by the farmers
for handling various levels of flood flows. The Seer team presented a
detailed typology of existing water rights and accompanying obligations,
the indigenous technology used for water diversion, and the intricate
organization necessary for collective mobilization to erect water
diversions and distribute the flood water according to right. The team
pointed out the necessity of physical improvements in the distribution
system of flood irrigation if the proposed structures were to be of
benefit to the hill torrent irrigation communities and not just remain
flood protection measures for the more reliable farming systems eastward
in the DG Khan canal command.
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Seer was subcontracted as a
specialized firm by the NESPAK-NDC-AHT joint venture to provide an
accurate analysis of the target group and of the sociological factors
likely to influence farmer capacity and willingness to cooperate in
adopting the organizational innovations proposed in the IDA-UNDP and WAPDA
Sukh Beas and Lower Bari Doab Canal feasibility study. The feasibility
study proposed technical, institutional and financial measures that will
lead to the commercialization of relationships between suppliers and users
of canal water; the progressive transfer of ownership and operations to
structured associations of consumer farmers, responsible for water
indenting, allocation, maintenance, and water charge collection; and
finally, the creation of a transitional, commercially-oriented public
utility to replace the provincial irrigation department. The Seer team
provided a detailed analysis of the social, kinship and power relations
existing among the farmers, and the social dynamics of the Warabandi
system likely to influence farmer cooperation for these far-reaching
measures. Seer's analysis concluded that it is sociologically feasible to
transfer the self-governing internal discipline that has emerged out of
necessity over time in the Warabandi system on the watercourses, to the
level of the distributary, by handing over the control of the distributary
to the farmers. Warabandi is no longer influenced by the degree of
factionalism characteristic of the rest of society.
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