It deals with farming systems research and discusses the ingredients which make an analysis successful. Specifically, these issues are discussed in relation to the eastern Visayas upland region of the Philippines.
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This article reports the results of a collaborative research effort carried out in 1982-84 by the International Fertilizer Development Centre (IFDC) and the International Centre for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), in Colombia, to determine the agronomic potential of local phosphate materials identified in experiment sation research, in the soils, climate and management conditions found on small farms in Colombia. The paper evaluates three approaches to farmer participation differentiated by the extent to which farmers participated in defining criteria for the design of on-farm fertilizer trials. The three methodologies are described, and the resultant experimental designs are compared in terms of their criteria for testing fertilizers under small farm conditions. The results show that increased scope for farmer participation produced significant changes in the design of on-farm trials due to important insights into how farmers themselves would evaluate fertilizers, and raised basic research questions about improvements in the technology. The paper concludes that farmer participation in experimental design for on-farm trials requires fewer resources and less time than diagnostic survey research while qualitatively improving feedback between scientists and farmers.
This book examines 'the ways in which people form images of other places and how these images influence many decisions'. Examples are given of how people's mental maps reveal their perceptions and beliefs about the world. Planners asked people in Birmingham, UK, for 'the maps that they had in their heads and which they used in moving around the centre of the city'. The response was very large because 'people seemed to like the idea of helping planners and being involved in some small way with the planning process going on in their town'. As in PRA mapping activities, the maps drawn reflected people's experiences. In another example, a black school boy in Boston drew five educational institutions in the area, 'indicative of his perception of education as an escape route from the segregated life he leads'. Our mental maps are influenced and shaped by information, such as that provided by the media and school text books. School leavers ranked the places where they preferred to live, revealing 'local domes of desirability and a shared national viewpoint' regarding images of certain towns. The book ends by looking at how to change people's mental maps : 'the maps and models of the world we carry around with us need larger and much more relevant information inputs'.
These RRA guidelines are organised in two sections. The first part examines the substance of RRA in agricultural marketing research: the main characteristics of RRA in food systems research, and some basic alternative approaches (Ch. 2), analytical frameworks for the study of commodity marketing systems (Ch. 3), key areas of investigation of commodity subsectors (Ch. 4), analysis of prices and marketing margins (Ch. 5), proxy variables and key indicators (Ch. 6), and non-market, institutional and non-economic factors in food systems (Ch. 7). The second section discusses the process of RRA (Chs. 8 and 9), including sections on preparation for fieldwork (Ch. 8) and implementation of RRA surveys (Ch. 9). Report preparation, presentation and follow up are the subject of Ch. 10, and some limitations of RRA are addressed in Ch. 11. This paper is aimed at agricultural economists, and much of the information assumes possession of specialist knowledge.
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.
This book presents agroecosystem analysis as a methodology for dealing with the complex interactions of agriculture and environment. The first chapter discusses these linkages, and suggests that they should be understood as systems, whose analysis requires multidisciplinarity. In contrast to farming systems research and integrated rural development approaches, the agroecosystem analysis approach developed in the rest of this book can deal with all levels in the hierarchy of agroecosystems, and focuses on trade-offs between different measures of performance. The key concepts behind this approach are introduced in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 discusses agroecosystem analysis for research. Processes and stages of research exercises using this approach are explained. Chapter 4 discusses agroecosystem analysis for development action. The procedures are modified to make it action focused and less time consuming. This involves adoption of RRA methods which are introduced. The final chapter discusses challenges for agroecosystem design, technology assessment and development and implementation which arise from agroecosystem analysis.
This paper discusses the development of a participative approach to watershed management in PIDOW, a collaborative programme involving the NGO MYRADA in India. It notes that an areas surveyed by RRA was ecologically degraded and weak in institutions and skills. This led to calls for assisting in design and building of local institutions to manage watershed resources. Effective participation in watershed management requires that the area considered is neither too large nor too small, and that management is decentralised to village groups. PIDOW also emphasises integration of forestry programmes, animal husbandry practices, and credit programmes with soil and water management at the watershed level. This paper explores and explains the rationale for the development of the PIDOW approach.
This guide to farming systems research (FSR) is aimed at agronomists and agricultural economists. Part I consists of introductory lectures on farming systems research. FSR is defined, its key concepts (farmer participation, holistic, multidisciplinary, iterative, feedback, contextual) are outlined, and problems in applying these concepts in practice are discussed. The purpose of diagnosis and suggestions for biological measurement are discussed with examples of applications to tillage depth and soil moisture. The nature of on -farm experiments is also explained. The final section is on statistical analysis of on-farm agronomic data. Part II presents guidelines for changing research with a commodity focus to a farmer problem focus, with suggestions for improvements in methods. It also presents guidelines for diagnosing farmers' problems, designing solutions, on farm testing and farmers' experiments. Each section is illustrated with instructive examples from experiences in the Philippines.
This paper defines agroecosystems and examines the variety of strategies used to create such a system such as productivity, stability, sustainability and equitability. It states that agricultural development involves a trade-off between these properties. It demonstrates this through selected examples from agricultual history, including the origins of agriculture, manorial and modern Western agriculture and the Green Revolution in Indonesia. It is suggested that these properties may be used normatively as combined criteria for evaluating the performance of agricultural development programmes and projects.
There is a brief review of Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) and Agroecosystem Analysis (AA). The concepts underpinning these methods, particularly the emphasis on locally attained data, are explained, and their application is expounded. The multidisciplinary aspect of these methods is focused upon. There is a detailed bibliography.
The book is aimed at any individual who is attempting to understand, with limited time and resourses, any local system. It describes Agroecosytem Analysis (AA), an exploratory Rapid Rural Appraisal methodology. AA is a systematic but flexible workshop procedure, based on systems analysis, for determining research and development priorities in rural development. The book aims to supplement readings from a bibliography that is supplied.
Contains sections on the following: what is wealth ranking; why is wealth ranking needed; background work needed before carrying out wealth ranking; actual informant ranking; computing the actual score and grouping; an example of wealth ranking from Maasailand, Kenya, and from Meru district, Kenya; and finally, gives some suggested further reading. An appendix contains a check-list to help those wishing to carry out a wealth ranking exercise.
