ABSTRACT
This chapter describes the participatory approaches (PA) methodology and discusses that was adopted for approaching field for conducting both exploratory and topical rounds of inquiry. It highlights the field research cycle which helps to provide contextual meaning to the kind of results arrived at. The chapter presents the research team and their code of conduct. The methods and principles of participatory rural appraisal were adopted for field research. The participatory research had two parts—exploratory and topical. The PA researchers inquired into ways and means of how people dealt with agricultural constraints and also how they viewed their health and other problems and what factors they thought were causing them. The PA researchers in consultation with the scientific research team selected villages/hamlets in Faridabad and Varanasi for conducting participatory research. Such selection was refined and improved upon in consultation with village communities.
