Step 1. Understanding the Village Community
VEWs should enter the community with an open mind and understand the community structure. They must understand the community power structure, problems, and opportunities for development. Walking around and talking to key people can help ease their entry into the community. VEWs should also develop an under-standing of the entire community, including the poor and marginal farmers and women.
Some of the techniques that can help to understand the community are using key informant techniques, participating in the community meeting and tea stalls, and walking around. Understanding the ownership of community resources and people's attitude, knowledge, and skills in the development of agricultural production will help the VEW learn about the community. The VEW can also understand the situation in more depth by collecting both qualitative and quantitative information on the levels of income and productivity, costs of cultivation, post-harvest losses, output utilization, and the likelihood of making striking improvements to each of these factors.
Step 1 is crucial and cannot be done in a hurry. VEWs must spend some time (up to a month or so) to get the feel of the village community structure, politics, groups, and past experience in FOs.