Pretty, Jules N.

Abstractor - please leave note at end (Also in English see record no. 1992)

There has been a recent growth in interest in participation. This paper examines the different forms of participation and argues that some of these do not lead to new ways of learning about the world and thus will not lead to sustainable agriculture. A new professionalism is required whereby professionals are more multi-disciplinary, more open to selecting methodologies to suit their needs from other disciplines and where proofessionals are prepared to work with those from other disciplines well as a wide range of non-scientific people.

This article presents the very interesting history of a government agency which has adopted participatory procedures to mobilise communities for resource conservation. It starts with a brief history of soil and water conservation (SWC) in Kenya. The inability of conventional approaches led to the adoption of the Catchment Approach by the Soil and Water Conservation Branch of the Ministry of Agriculture. In this approach, conservation efforts are concentrated in a specified catchment for a limited period of time.

This book is intended to supply sufficient information so that development workers can judge the likely usefulness of a Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA) approach in their projects and programmes, and select the techniques most appropriate to their needs and resources. The emphasis is on a methodology which is rigorous, cost-effective and multidisciplinary. RRA aims to work with farmers and local community leaders to analyse local problems. An extensive annotated bibliography of RRA literature is included.