I am planning home visits in the communities where we are working to ask people about gardening/agriculture to learn more about the context. I am hoping to be able to walk around with people in their yards to get a sense of the area and hear what they have to say about what they are growing and would like to grow (or not grow). I based these questions on conversations I had with you in January, the ECHO Consultation Questionnaire, the PRAP Workbook, and their relevance to the MHA study/project at hand.
Next Tuesday-Thursday, Andrea and I will be visiting each house with the nutrition technician who has worked in the community for the past year doing home visits and nutrition follow-up. She knows the families and can help translate.
This is the type of questions we will ask in the survey :
Agricultural Questions for Home Visits
Basic Family Index card (adapted from PRAP Workbook pg 57):
Community name
Name of person interviewed, age, & member of family
Place of origin of parents and grandparents
Formal schooling level of: husband, wife & children
Number of births & number of live children
How many children live with you?
How many people live on the farm?
Is there any family member who lives outside the community? How do these family members help out?
Farm sketch (PRAP Workbook pg 56):
General information about the family is written down (above). Facilitator walks around the farm with the owners and/or laborers, observing its main features. The farmer with the help of other family members draws a sketch of the farm (boundaries, land area, water sources, crops, trees, animals, infrastructure, topography, land use, etc.) The farmer NOT the facilitator draws the farm!
**My idea is to walk around the home land area and draw a sketch of that, not the entire farm.
Questions to Address
Do you have your own house and/or land?
What are the major crops grown in the family/community?
When are crops sown and harvested?
What is the rainfall pattern and annual average? What are the weather patterns - rainy, dry, cold, warm?
What is the soil like? Is it fertile?
Do you have access to water? Where is your water source?
What is the altitude?
What is the average % of food consumed by the household that comes from own production?
What is the average % of food consumed by the household purchased from market?
What produce do you buy when going to the market?
What are the most common vegetables available?
What are the most common fruits available?
What kind of trees and plants do you have around your house?
Do you eat from these trees and plants?
Do you have medicinal plants
What else do you do with the fruit/produce?
What kinds of things do you want to eat that you do not have access to?
Are you interested in growing more plants around your house?