The ten seed technique by Dr.Ravi I. Jayakaran is an amazing tool to generate information on a wide range of issues from community problems in Health , Agriculture, Animal Husbandry, HIV/AIDS, MED, Education, Gender & Development, CEDC, Marriage, etc. The Ten Seed Technique is a modified Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) tool that t can enable illiterate community members to participate in the discussions about their community’s needs.
It is useful in gathering qualitative information on various issues, especially related to the perceptions of the community and the way people see themselves in relation to others. The technique is very flexible and therefore versatile, enabling its use in combination with other techniques and also for collecting a wide range of information. The 10 seed technique enables probing deeply into different dimensions of an issue, for carrying out what is referred to as “opening up” the information. This essentially involves going deeper into an issue after starting at the absolute basic level.
This technique relies on using the Right brain function so that the full potential of the brain for perceptive analysis is utilized. The right brain is initiated into action by visuals such as pictures, and three dimensional items. When we use seeds to depict aspects of information, the visual created by the seeds (strong contrast of colors between the seeds and background), helps the Right brain play a dominant role in the analysis. The right brain is the more powerful part of the brain, because it is the creative side, more perceptive, more analytical and also has access to the information both in the left brain and the subconscious mind. Thus today the technique is even used with those who are literate! For best results, facilitation m
ust aim at getting the group to ‘move the seeds first’ then describe the section…rather than preparing a list first and then trying to slot the seeds in!!
The various areas where the ten seed technique plays an important role are Trend analysis, seasonality diagram, livelihood analysis, expenditure analysis, problem analysis, disease incidence, Wholistic World View Analysis (WWVA), Capacity – vulnerability (C/V) analysis, Rapid Food Security Status Assessment (RFSA), gender disaggregation etc. The range of areas is wide spread.
A brief description on how the ten seed technique can be used for few of the activities:
Trends analysis: The group is asked to think of all the things that have changed in their community since the past. They are then asked to list the things that have changed. In front of each issue that has changed they are asked to prepare two columns, representing the situation – “then” and “Now’. For each area of Change, they are asked to use 10 seeds and distribute them between the ‘then’ and ‘now’ columns. The trend of change then becomes obvious and allows for a lot of discussions.
Livelihood analysis: The group is asked to imagine the entire income of the whole village from all sources, throughout the year is represented by the 10 seeds.( To make it easier they are asked to imagine it all to be converted into money as some of it is generated in cash and some in materials). They are then asked to divide the seeds into groups representing the sources of the income. Use of the ten seeds here enables us to find out.
World View Analysis (WWVA): This exercise is done by combining the Livelihood analysis and the problem analysis information of the village with the information on uncertainties in the village. This is an exercise that involves the whole village and is usually carried out after carrying out a debriefing to the whole village of information gathered in their village. The details of this exercise and how to conduct it have been extensively documented in a document called, “WWVA-Wholistic World View Analysis”, written by the author of this book. It is a technique for carrying out a capacity-vulnerability(C/V) analysis of the village with the villagers active participation for community Resource development planning. The next exercise mentioned namely: Capacity –Vulnerability (C/V) analysis is also done from the data generated using the C/V analysis and the information from the innermost circle and the outermost circles enable us to identify the Capacities to be developed and the Vulnerabilities to be reduced. Both these issues have been documented extensively in the book mentioned above.
How it works: After initial rapport building with the group, explain that the purpose of the exercises is to understand and learn about their community from their perspective. The facilitators of the exercise should then explain the purpose of the specific subject that they propose to explore with them.
To initiate discussion for a community-wide needs assessment, ask the group to imagine all the problems and needs that are faced by the community as a whole. Active participation can be enabled by giving everyone an equal chance to share views. For example, you may elect to form two groups out of one community – one of women and one of men – so that women can feel comfortable participating in the discussion. Strong personalities might need to be filtered out; they may be able to be reasoned with in order to understand the importance of the participatory process, given projects that will occupy them, or taken aside for a key person interview.
Each individual community need, as it is identified by a community member, is drawn graphically on a large sheet of newsprint – or right on the ground. The technique is a very visual one that allows the literate and illiterate to participate as equal partners and contribute meaningfully to the discussion.
Each workshop participant is given 10 seeds as voting tokens to be used in prioritizing the needs with a 10-Seed vote. Villagers vote in privacy and place seeds on the illustrations of the identified needs they feel are the most important. They are free to spread their seeds across several needs – or to place all 10 on a single need that is most important to them.
Once all of the individuals have placed their seeds, the participants are asked to discuss the results. The collective tokens will show a prioritization of the needs identified by the community — by which need has the greatest number of seeds.
The 10 seed technique enables probing deeply into different dimensions of an issue, for carrying out what is referred to as “opening up” the information. This essentially involves going deeper into an issue after starting at the absolute basic level.
For example, after finding out about the health status of a community, one can then go deeper into it to find out reasons for difference, link it with their wealth status and go further into exploring the type of health care each group is able to access. This “opening up” process can continue and find linkages to education level and attitudes.
It is important that the facilitators carrying this out with a positive attitude. This essentially means being open to new perspectives and ideas without pre-assumptions. Success is guaranteed when one develops this ‘listening attitude”. If handled correctly, the exercises will generate animated discussions among the participants.
The “Ten Seed Technique” book is especially written for the use of field and grass roots level staff, but can be used at any level of planning and project design.
Link: http://www.fao.org/participation/Ten-Seed%20Technique-Revised.pdf
