Project Details.

The 'Improving Cotton Quality Production through Climate-Resilient Practices, with a Focus on Women Farmers' project, a joint initiative by RDF and the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), operates in Sanghar District, Sindh province. It aimed to uplift the livelihoods of small-scale cotton growers, focusing on elevating their living standards. Key project elements include addressing climate change awareness, disaster readiness, and soil health management; advocating best agricultural practices; empowering women; ensuring child welfare; and enhancing daily wages for women in cotton-related activities. 

The project emphasizes women's active involvement at all levels and strives to apply Better Cotton Sustainability Standards (BCSS) across 100 villages, targeting 2,500 small-scale farmers, 400 of whom are women. Presently active in Jam Nawaz Ali and Tando Adam sub-districts, The project was tailored to address climate-related challenges in these vulnerable areas. 

Inception Meeting and Context Understanding: Following the contract signing, an inception meeting was conducted with the RDF team to comprehend the project context and expectations, define scope, agree on methodology and timelines, and identify necessary documents for the literature review. 

Literature Review: HCPL initiated the study process with an extensive literature review to gather secondary data. This encompassed examining pertinent project documents, reports, pre-existing research, and project-related documents, including the project log frame, village list, and pertinent reports. 

This step aimed to establish a comprehensive understanding of the project's goals, objectives, and beneficiaries. Tool Development: The development of KAP survey tools was meticulous to create a structured format for the survey. The survey incorporated a mix of closed questions to gather quantitative data through multiple-choice and Likert scale questions and qualitative insights through open-ended inquiries. The questionnaire covered various topics crucial to female cotton farmers' experiences, challenges, practices, and aspirations, laying the groundwork for informed decision-making and interventions. 

HIMAT Consulting conducted field planning and data collection: The data collection was carried out immediately after the finalization of the Inception report and the data collection tools. The tools were then translated into Sindh by the survey expert. 

A one-day training was conducted in Sanghar district by the core team of HCPL. This comprehensive training covered theoretical and practical aspects of data collection tools, ethical protocols, and field planning and methodologies, and the training on KOBO Collect and its verification were done on the same day. This was followed by field pretesting exercises to familiarize the enumerators with the eventual field work through KOBO Collect.