General information on the region where the target group lives
Climate. Soils. Crops grown. Farm sizes. Infrastructure. Markets. Schools. Health service. Annual average cash income. Settlement density. Demography.
Description of the Community to which the target group belongs (village organization)
Ethnic composition. Basic history. Basic cultural information on each group. Present interrelationships. Kinship system and its extent of control over economic activities (such as allocation of land). Communal activities self-help groups. Local leadership. Sense of common interest is more strongly located in kinship by descent and to a lesser extent by marriage (Hayward). Strength or weakness in motivating common action and arbitrating disputes; are women excluded from formal decision-making and control of economic resources? Available sanctions. Ritual activities and meanings. Traditional authorities: influence and attitude to development of chiefs, headmen. Local party organization. Local government staff. Relations between party, government and traditional systems.
Pattern of settlement and mobility
Seasonal transhumance. Shifting cultivation. Periodic migration. Urban-rural and rural-urban migration. Stable settlement in relation to major (seasonal and locational) economic activities. Location with regard to other villages, markets. Transport systems.
Socio-economic sturctures which determine the living conditions of the poor
Different groups of the community. Access to the different inputs per group. Interaction between these groups. Are the female-headed households one group or are other factors determinant for the creation of groups?
General Data on Target Group
Who is head of household: male/female? Number of people living in the same house; age, gender, occupation Relatives working in town who send money to the village Literacy, education Farm size. Annual average cash income.
1 Complied by Jennie van der Mheen, based on the Programme's desk studies
Subsistence Strategies of the Target Group
What kind of subsistence crops. Cash crops. Agricultural calendar and labour inputs. Specialist versus generalist. Age, gender and tribe linked activities. Animal husbandry. Other economic activities. Cultural calendar with regard to availability of labour. Means of production. Provision, need to buy supplementary food.
Access of Target Group to Suitable Land and Fish-Farming Inputs
Who owns and controls the land. Conditions of use. Inheritance patterns. Security/insecurity. Compensation or tribute. Who can use it → lease rights, fishing rights? Quantity and quality of land. Location with regard to proximity to the farmers house. Availability of water? Roads to villages. Transport facilities to markets. Fish feed, compost feeding, animal waste → kind of inputs available in a household? Opportunity costs of inputs. Hired labour - payment, e.g., “beer parties”.
Access of Target Group to Technical Knowledge and Management Skills
Existing extension services, how often the extension officers come to the community, which target group they address, how this system works, results, experience in the past with projects or extension services, male or female extension workers. Knowledge of prices of inputs, costs of outputs, market prices, price elasticity, credit.
Hypothesis
If women have access to knowledge and inputs on production and to harvesting and marketing of the production they will participate in the decision-making on income expenditure. Consequently more money is spent on food and health care for household members (Drewes). Crops grown; husbandry: tasks male/tasks female/tasks children. Harvest → consumed or sold; if sold, price determined by whom? What is done with the money? In relation to extension, to whom is the “message” addressed?
Sources of Revenue
Migration. Seasonal work. Wage-work. Sale of tools, household articles, clothes. Marketing of agriculture produce.
Spending of Money
Articles of consumption. Houses. Bride price. Investment in agriculture, husbandry. Commerce.
Entrepreneurical Activity: who, why?
His/her background : experience with wage labour, experience in planting innovative crops, time spent in town or external travel, relatives in town, social position, availability of resources such as land and capital. What kind of activity, what is needed for this kind of activity.
What happens if somebody has economic success
Identification of potential change agents
Technical staff, volunteers, NGO staff, teachers, school leavers, influentials, women's groups, etc. Informal communication: meeting places, markets, migration; Formal communication: newspaper, brochures, radio, theatre groups; Spreading of innovations: adoption of innovation so far, push and inhibiting factors, effect on the social and economic process.
Integrating aquaculture into an existing yearly cycle of other economic activities
What kind of economic activities (agriculture, husbandry, others), inputs needed, outputs received (see other topics) = necessity and possibility for integration of aquaculture.
Profitability of fish farming compared with other farming systems
Analysing costs and earnings of different farming systems (if prices are subsidized, base calculations on these prices). Land costs (rent). Capital costs (interest). Variable costs. Depreciation on fixed assets.
Availability of markets for fish
Demand for fish, how much do people eat, how often (special occasions?). What kind of fish, buy it at the market or catch it themselves. Price of fish, in village and nearby markets. Consumers must have money to buy fish or obtain it in return for other basic products. Who really eats the fish; nutrition and distribution problem. Price of fish compared to other products.
Availability of capital to meet the cost of fish production
Surplus production? Opportunity costs, family labour, and when available, additional labour needed? Pond construction = female-headed households more problems? Hire labour? Money for fingerlings. Credit available (institutional, friends, middlemen).
Shift from Fishermen to Fish-Farmers
Existence of intermigration cycle between fishermen How often do they fish; how (nets, angling, boat) Catch: self consumption, sold → where? price? Other activities of fishermen and family Ethno-ecological knowledge about fish and other relevant Ethno-ecological knowledge and skills.
Study the Existing Attitudes and Behaviour toward and elicit Factual Histories regarding (Hayward):
Necessary Attitudes for Success of Fish- Farming
