Janet Achora of WOUGNET sent in this post from their work in the Apac district of Uganda
Local African communities are reserved communities and very protective of their cultures and social norms. In my experience of working with rural communities during the last 20 years, unless a community accepts you, no meaningful engagement will take place.
During one of the disseminations meetings with “Oribcing” women farmers group in Atana Parish, Apac district in Northern Uganda, as is the routine, the women brought out the radio cassette player and placed it in the middle of the circle since we would all sit around it. After much singing and dancing, as a way of welcome we sat down to catch up on the latest events that had been happening in the community. After this brief rapport, the listening session commenced and this time the topic for listening and discussion was “Post harvest handling”
Usually in these meetings, when we can, we go with an agricultural extension worker from either the district agricultural office or from the partner NGOs who are involved in agricultural development. This is done so that the agricultural expert is able to directly respond to the questions raised by the group members after listening to the topic. The topics are normally replays recorded on an audio tape from radio talk shows done weekly by the Kubere Information centre staff.
It is during such interactive sessions that interesting issues come up. Members will normally talk about the traditional methods that they use and ask questions around this, based on what topic the audio recording was about. The agricultural expert is expected to bring in the technical aspect, of the advantages and disadvantages of using such methods, probably bring in new information, like for this case, on handling harvest. Much as the women learn from such sessions, they too contribute their local knowledge, practices and provide insight into issues that sometimes are overlooked by professional agriculturalists. And these sometimes are issues that need further looking into from the agricultural research aspect.
The meetings normally also involve going to look at one of the member’s gardens or to look at either the crop or animals. Sometimes practical demonstrations are held. For example “ How to make composite manure using local materials”
From such experiences, people in communities are more willing to contribute their own content when they are involved and when the information is practical. And one of the methods is to engage in information exchange with them. This process of course involves a lot of time, planning, documentation and both human and financial resources.
