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It looks at the principles and the methodology employed on a research project in northern Nigeria, which involved the collection of both farm management and nutritional data. The study was a wide ranging one; as such clear decisions about the type of data to be collected was made on the basis of time costs. The use of registered-non registered, continuous - one point and data cores are described and discussed. From these follow the means of sample stratification using these principles. Some ideas for improving RRA are suggested.

This paper follows from the recognition that meeting food needs requires that women's roles in production and food systems are taken into account. International agricultural research centres have paid little attention to the demands of domestic post-harvest technologies, being given a low priority in the determination of research agenda. Gender-specific varietal preferences for seed or stock selection have also been ignored. In addition to methodological weaknesses built into current research programming, insufficient attention has been paid to the institutional barriers which inhibit the exchange of experience and information between women and agricultural researchers and extension agents. The paper begins by suggesting why gender matters. The second section discusses seed technology and gender issues. The third section raises questions of methodology (discussing socio-economic research, farming systems research and policy research). [This section may be of particular interest to PRA collection users]. Further sections discuss research-extension linkages, and the measurement of inputs. The final three sections are case studies of the impact of technical change in agriculture on women in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The paper discusses an experiment with a method of participatory research which was carried out during two research projects in Kenya Maasailand in the period 1976-1979. One project concerned the impact of drought on the people of Kajiado District; the other was an evaluation of Kenya's Foot and Mouth Disease Control Programme. The study shows that under a particularly favourable set of circumstances, significant interaction between the research team and the rural community was possible. However, an attempt to replicate the research approach in a different area under different circumstances proved an abject failure.

The report, written for an Arid Lands Workshop, very briefly discusses the main issues in SWC in sub-Saharan Africa. A list of "do's" for participatory soil and water conservation are then briefly discussed, which are mostly to do with the organisational side of SWC, rather than the technical. A short analysis is made of the character of Oxfam-funded SWC projects which concludes that the Oxfam projects are innovative and successful at getting the local population involved when compared to other such projects in the area. Four short case studies, from Burkina Faso, Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia, end the report.

This is abstracted in the annotated bibliography Famine Early Warning and Food Information Systems in the Sahel and Horn of Africa, Lambert et al, 1991, IDS Development Bibliography, no. 7.

A pilot course on project identification was run for 24 heads of local government departments in several states in Northern Nigeria. The first course was based on fieldwork and focussed on applying RRA techniques for the purpose of project identification. This report evaluates the training programme from a methodological perspective, pointing out mistakes that were made, such as using a questionnaire instead of a checklist. The analysis also shows the importance of working out participants' specific training needs and developing a model to meet these. PRA activities are not described, but some findings are given

The methodology recommended by this document builds on rapid rural appraisal techniques. The author develops a framework for more effective analysis and design of community forestry activities. First, the framework analyses tenure issues within three broad tenure types: the holding, the commons, and the forest reserve. Second it examines, from the point of view of the household, the opportunities for tree planting and use under each of these three tenure systems. While it is recognised that there are obvious limits to the use of the rapid appraisal methodology, it should be possible to significantly reduce related design problems in projects through the procedures suggested in the publication. The author's knowledge of a forestry project in the Arusha region of Tanzania provides examples.