Jewels of ICRISAT Village Level Studies

1. ICRISAT’s unique contribution to the global knowledge base on
better understanding of constraints and pathways to agricultural
development and poverty alleviation in the dryland tropics
Village Level Studies
Aug 2012
Overview
The ICRISAT Village Level Studies
(VLS) started in 1975 by surveying panel
households in six villages in semi-arid
tropics (SAT) of Andhra Pradesh and
Maharashtra states of India.
The studies were initiated to enhance
availability of reliable household, individual
members, field-specific high frequency,
and time-series and spatial data to
better understand farming systems and
socioeconomic constraints of SAT farmers.
VLS development
stages: Past, present
and future
v 1975-85: Intensive data collection started
in 6 villages of SAT India with regular and
several special purpose surveys.
v 1981/82 onwards: VLS started in 6 villages
of Burkina Faso and 4 villages in Niger.
v 2001-08: Expanded survey work in India
through linking with the World Bank, ODI
and National Agricultural Technology
Project of ICAR.
v 2009 onwards: VLS activities expanded
from 6 to 42 villages in South Asia (5
states in SAT India, 3 states in East India,
and 12 districts of Bangladesh), under the
project “Village Dynamics Studies in South
Asia” funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates
Foundation.
Objectives of VLS
v To provide a socio-economic field laboratory for research, teaching,
training and outreach
v To track changes in the farm activities, farming systems,
socioeconomic and biophysical constraints, and livelihood options of
the rural poor
v To understand response of rural women and men to changing markets,
policies and technologies
v To understand women and men farmers’ response to agro-
climatic variability, and their coping mechanisms against risks and
vulnerabilities
v To understand dynamics of rural transformation, poverty and drivers of
change
v To provide feedback for designing policy interventions, setting research
priorities and refining technologies.
The innovation
v The Economics Program (now known
as RP- MIP) gradually expanded survey
scope from farming systems to technology
adoption and impacts, poverty analysis,
livelihoods, risks and vulnerability, and
coping mechanisms.
v The ICRISAT VLS data bank is equivalent to
a biological “gene bank”. It provides a “field
laboratory” to undertake multi-disciplinary
research on farming systems on a variety
of topics by integrating biological, technical,
social and economic approaches.
v ICRISAT VLS provides a unique set of
high frequency longitudinal (since 1975)
panel data of farm households that are
International Public Goods (IPGs).
The impact
v VLS have attracted many scholars
globally for path-breaking research in rural
economy. VLS data sets are considered as
International Public Goods (IPG), and rank
among the most valuable contributions of
the CGIAR to global communities.
v The VLS data reveal many valuable facts
of the farming systems and livelihoods,
and was termed as the ‘goose that lays
golden eggs’ in the World Development
Reports of the World Bank (2008).
v Over 150 research papers and over
40 doctoral dissertations have already
been completed using the VLS dataset,
resulting in over 10,000 citations of the
VLS data (Google Scholar, June 2011).
Partners
NARS and State Agricultural
Universities, NGOs, advanced research
institutes, and many other partners
have greatly contributed in surveys
and conduct of the field research and
documentation.
Director RP-MIP, Cynthia Bantilan (in white) and team members
discuss collective action by women with farmers in Kanzara Village,
Maharashtra state.
Food and water scarcity are common
plights in poor villages of India.
Top: Enumerators collect socio-economic data from village families.
Bottom: A participatory rural appraisal session in progress in
Konapara village, Mymensingh, Bangladesh.
A scientific officer writes down impacts of
agricultural expansion in an African village.