PRA

Participatory Rural Appraisal ,Rapid rural appraisal , Participatory technology development

1. PARTICIPATORY RURAL APPRAISAL

2. D.Lokeshwaran Pg Scholar
Department of Agricultural Extension

Course Teacher Dr.J.Meenambigai Associate Professor
Department of Agricultural Extension

3. PARTICIPATORY RURAL APPRAISAL Appraisal The finding out of information about problems, needs, and potential in a village. It is the first stage in any project. Participatory Means that people are involved in the process a "bottom-up" approach that requires good communication skills and attitude of project staff.

• Rural The techniques can be used in any situation, urban or rural, with both literate and illiterate. people.

4. PRA It is considered one of the popular and effective approaches to gather information in rural areas. This approach was developed in early 1990s with considerable shift in paradigm from top-down to

bottom-up approach, and from blueprint to the

learning process.

communities effectively manage their

on village experiences where PRA is based on resources. their natural

5. CONT....

• PRA is a methodology of learning rural life and their environment from the rural people.

It requires researchers / field workers to act as facilitators to help local people conduct their own analysis, plan and take action accordingly.

It is based on the principle that local people are creative and capable and can can do their own investigations, analysis, and planning. The basic concept of PRA is to learn from rural people.

6. DEFINITION-CHAMBERS (1992) PRA as an approach and methods for learning about rural life and conditions from, with and by rural people. He further stated that PRA extends into analysis, planning and action. PRA closely involve villagers and local officials in the process.

7. KEY PRINCIPLES

• Participation - participation by the communities

Flexibility time and resources available • Teamwork - conducted by a local team with local languvage • Optimal ignorance - both time and money

Systematic-generated data, qualitative nature

8. PRA TECHNIQUES - METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES

• Visualisation

Verbalisation - Documentation

• Sequencing

• Optimal Ignorance

Triangulation

9. PRA TECHNIQUES Direct observation - Observations are related to questions: What? When? Where? Who? Why? How?

Do it yourself - Villagers are encouraged to teach the researcher how to to do various activities. The researcher will learn how much skill and strength are required to do day-to-day rural activities, gaining an insider's perspective on a situation.

10. PARTICIPATORY MAPPING AND MODELING Using local materials, villagers draw or model

current or historical conditions. The researcher then

interviews the villager by "interviewing the map."

This technique can be used to show soils, water sources, wealth rankings, household assets, land-use patterns, changes in farming practices, constraints, trends, health and welfare conditions, and the distribution of various resources.

11. SEASONAL CALENDARS Variables such as rainfall, labour, income,

expenditures, debt, animal fodder or pests, and harvesting periods can be drawn (or created with stones, seeds, and sticks) to show month-to-month variations and seasonal constraints and to highlight opportunities for action. An 18-month calendar can better illustrate variations than a 12-month calendar.

12. DAILY-ACTIVITY PROFILES

• Researchers can explore and compare the daily- activity patterns of men, women, youth, and elders by charting the amount of time taken to complete tasks.

13. SEMI STRUCTURED INTERVIEWING

structured interviewing and listening

A semi technique uses some predetermined questions and topics but allows new topics to be pursued as the interview develops. The interviews are informal and conversational but carefully controlled.

14. PERMANENT-GROUP INTERVIEWS Established groups, farmers' groups, or people using the same water source can be interviewed together. This technique can help identify collective problems or solutions

15. TIME LINES Major historical community events and changes are dated and listed. Understanding the cycles of change can help communities focus on future actions and information requirements.

16. LOCAL HISTORIES Local histories are similar to time lines but give a more detailed account of how things have changed or are changing. For example, histories can be developed for crops, population changes, community health trends and epidemics, education changes, road developments, and trees and forests.

17. VENN DIAGRAMS To show the relationship between things, overlapping circles are used to represent people, villages, or institutions; lines are added to reflect inputs and outputs.

18. WEALTH AND WELL-BEING RANKINGS

• People are asked to sort cards (or slips of paper) representing individuals or households from rich to poor or from sick to healthy.

This technique can be used for crosschecking information and for initiating discussions on a specific topic (for example, poverty).

The technique can also be used to produce a benchmark against which future development interventions can be measured or evaluated.

19. MATRICES Matrices can be used to gather information and to facilitate or focus analyses and discussions.

o For example, a problem opportunity matrix could have columns with the following labels: soil type, land use, cropping patterns, and available resources; and rows with the following labels: problems, constraints, local solutions, and initiatives already tried.

20. TRADITIONAL MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS AND LOCAL-RESOURCE COLLECTIONS Local people collect samples (for example, of soils, plants). This can be an efficient way to learn about the local biodiversity, taxonomies. management systems, and

21. FOLKLORE, SONGS, POETRY, AND DANCE Local folklore, songs, dance, and poetry are analyzed to provide insight into values, history, practices, and beliefs.

22. DIAGRAMS EXHIBITION Transitions

• Diagrams, maps, charts, and photos of the research activity are displayed in a public place to share information, facilitate discussions, and provide an additional crosschecking device. The exhibition can inspire other villagers to take part in research activities.

23. SHARED PRESENTATIONS AND ANALYSIS • Participants are encouraged to present their findings to other villagers and to outsiders, providing another opportunity for crosschecking, feedback, comment, and criticism.

24. NIGHT HALTS This facilitates all interactions between the outsiders and the villagers, invites change in the outsiders' attitudes, and allows for early-morning and evening discussions, when villagers tend to have more leisure time.

25. PRA TOOLS

26. SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW (SSI) • Purpose: To gain information from an individual or small group on an issue.

It is a PRA method that engages villagers in a conversation through a series of guide questions (not structured questionnaire) relevant to the villagers.Important information is generated by talking with villagers about topics that interest them.
SSI can be used with individuals, key informants interest groups or other small groups of villagers (i.e. women's groups).

27. MAPS Participatory mapping is one of the most versatile tools and is powerful in generating pictures on any aspect of the physical reality.

Maps can be produced for big regions (movement of animal herds of pastoralists), villages, farms or even of a single plot, depending on questions people are interested in.

28. SOCIAL MAPPING Social mapping is involves the sketching/drawing of houses and other social facilities and infrastructure (i.e. temple, stores, rice mills, school, pharmacy, trails and roads, water pumps, irrigation and recreation facilities) in a village.

It helps to visualize and situate the location of households and other social facilities/infrastructure in a village.It serves as a baseline for planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of village development activities (including selection of village organizing strategy).

29. RESOURCE MAP The Village Resource Map is a tool that helps us to learn about a community and its resource base.

The primary concern is not to develop an accurate map but to get useful information about local perceptions of resources..

Objectives: To learn the villagers' perception of what natural resources are found in the community and how they are used.

30. TIMELINE (HISTORICAL MAPPING) The timeline with basic events can be used for focused discussions on problems, social and technological innovations or on communities history of cooperation's and activities which helped them to solve in past problems successfully.

31. SEASONAL CALENDAR • PRA method that determines patterns and trends throughout the year in a certain village.

It can be used for purposes such as rainfall distribution, food availability, agricultural production, income and expenditures, health problems, and others.

The seasonal calendar can also be used to collect information on how villagers allocate their time as well as their labour in various activities within the village.

32. WEALTH RANKING • Wealth ranking is determines the economic attributes of households in a village. It shows information on the relative wealth and well-being of households in a village. It helps in determining the social and economic status of households in a village.

33. PAIR-WISE RANKING • Pair-wise ranking is a PRA method that helps villagers to set priorities (i.e. problems, needs, actions, etc.).

Ranking can be undertaken with key informants or group of villagers that represents a good mixture of interests.

It can also be conducted based on gender to

determine different preferences between men and women.

34. KEY INFORMANT INTERVIEW Depending on the nature and scope of an inquiry, the investigator identifies appropriate groups from which the key informants may be drawn, and then selects a few from each group. People belong to groups, e.g. families, castes, villages etc.

Farming practices and decisions are often discussed in families with friends and relatives. Farming or fishing practices, unlike other knowledge domains e.g. medicine, are common

35. ADVANTAGES OF PRA Identification of genuine priorities for target group

Devolution of management responsibilities
Motivation and mobilisation of local development workers

Forming better linkages between communities and development institutions Use of local resource Mobilisation of community resources

• More sustainable development activities

36. DISADVANTAGES Raising expectations which cannot be realised

• Proposal of development plans which participating agencies cannot respond to

Risk of "capture" of activities by local interests

o Failure to take account of stratification in communities

37. RRA- Rapid Rural Appraisal RRA is more commonly described as a systematic but semi-structured activity out in the field by a multidisciplinary team and is designed to obtain new information and to formulate new hypotheses about rural life. Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) is  an approach used for identifying quickly, inexpensively, and reliably groups and individuals most in need of primary health care . The method has been used primarily in agricultural research.

38. The techniques of RRA include: ·   interview and question design techniques for individual, household and key informant interviews ·   methods of cross-checking information from different sources ·   sampling techniques that can be adapted to a particular objective ·   methods of obtaining quantitative data in a short time frame ·   group interview techniques, including focus-group interviewing ·   methods of direct observation at site level, and ·   use of secondary data sources.

39. Participatory Technology Development Participatory Technology Development (PTD) is the practical process of bringing together the knowledge and research capacities of the local farming communities with that of the commercial and scientific institutions in an interactive way. It involves activities where local producers and traders work together with external actors in the identification generation, testing and application of new technologies and practices.

40. The process of technology development is closely linked with a process of social change. Encouraging local innovation through self organized planning, implementation and evaluation of systematic experiments fosters self respect and self confidence in the rural communities involved. It also fosters a process of cultural awareness and change, as the planning and assessment obliges the participants to take account of their situation and the responsibilities of different people in the community. Example: the different needs of women and men and the different barriers they face in trying to change their situation.

41. Steps in PTD Farmers and extension personnel together discuss their farming situation to identify major problems. After the problem identification and prioritization, different options are sought for solving it. These options come from farmer's knowledge as well as scientific stream. The role of extension worker is to provide appropriate technical options for testing. Incorporating the best options, the farmers and extension personnel jointly design the experiments for field implementation. The task of carrying out the experiment is entrusted to a willing farmer in the Self Help Group (SHG). The SHG members monitor and discuss the progress of the experiment during their group meetings.

42. Farmers record all the vital observations for the final evaluation of the experiment. On completion of the experiment, the farmers discuss the results in the SHG and evaluate the experiment thoroughly. The results are shared among other farmers.

43. Bibliography Chambers, R. (1994a) The origins and practice of Participatory Rural Appraisal, World Development, Vol. 22, No. 7, pp. 953-69.

• Participatory Rural Appraisal, 2003 World Bank.

• Methods of Participatory Appraisal, Phil Bartle, 2003

CSMED.

Participatory Rural Appraisal, Mohan Dhamotharan ,

1998-Dhaka.