Resources

This concerns the problems of wealth ranking, a method used mainly to describe the relative wealth of people in one discrete area, comparing like with like, and its application to more than one community. A problem arises when there is a need to stratify a number of communities which may, as a whole, vary in terms of their wealth. Different types of community, in terms of wealth, may well fall within the boundary of a single project area, thus it is important to deal with such issues. Attached to the letter are three descriptions of adaptations made to the standard wealth ranking technique. Generally in all three cases, wealth ranking was based on predefined criteria, except in the third, where criteria were developed after the initial comparative ranking was undertaken.

Farmers of different wealth will have different problems and needs, and varying ability to adopt proposed technologies. Agricultural research should take into account such differences, in order that research priorities be correctly determined and the relevant innovations developed. This paper reports on a wealth ranking procedure carried out in three upland village in the Philippines: Pong-on, Barrack and Cogon. It contains sections on the following: the preparation for the project; the card sorting methodology adopted; and lessons learnt and recommendations. The ranking exercise was found to be quick and simple, and produced valuable results.

The paper's objective is to construct a general framework which will increase the useful data, while reducing the cost of data collection in developing countries. The search for useful principles proceeds from the economics of information, via Karl Popper's principle of error reduction, and the use of information cybernetics in public decision-making, to the design of more cost-effective models of development processes, and the significance of alternative hierarchical administrative structures for the utility obtained from primary data. These components are combined into a unified logical framework. An integrated approach to management information is identified as a desirable adjunct for its application in practice.

The status of local agricultural knowledge in relation to the formal scientific, institutionalised agricultural knowledge of the research and extension services in southern Amazonia is analysed through detailed case study of the experience of the Mynky Indians of Mato-Grosso, Brazil. In this case study, the internal dynamic of the agricultural knowledge systems and practices of the Mynky Indians is examined in relation to other rural inhabitants of Amazonia, church as well as state. It discusses land-use systems and agriculture, Mynky social structure and the historical interaction between the Mynky and the development process. Finally, the paper looks at rural people's knowledge versus theoretical basis of scientific rationality.

It introduces the idea of rapid appraisal within the context of rural development. Its key themes are the cultural tensions that arise in rural development research efforts; the scope of RRA, its function and principles, and its challenge in developing a new professionalism, based on rigour and cost effectiveness. In emphasizing the need for eclecticism, inventiveness and versatility, and in questioning some conventional values in research, especially in statistics, it does not undervalue traditional standards and methods where they fit well. It acknowledges that it is easy to be rapid and wrong.

The report on a five-day workshop, organized by the Bay of Bengal's Programme - Post Harvest Fisheries Project and Outreach, which looked at various aspects of PRA. Topics examined included post-harvest activities, credit, women and government links. Exercises were carried out helping to familiarize the workshop participants with certain PRA techniques: matrix scoring, trend diagrams, wealth ranking and the like. An actual series of PRA activities were carried in a small coastal village - Alikuppam, as part of the workshop. The paper also reviews the comments of various groups attending the workshop, as to the application of PRA in their areas of concern. These groups included NGO staff, policy-makers and planners as well as more senior staff from government. This article also contains excerpts from a conversation between Peter Colaco and James Mascarenhas, director of OUTREACH, who acted as the principal resource person for the workshop.

It sets out to discuss the rise of agroecosystems analysis and rapid rural appraisal, as well as charting participatory methods of analysis. More specifically the paper contains sections on the following: (1) agroecosystem concepts; (2) agroecosystem analysis; (3) Rapid Rural Appraisal; and (4) Participatory Analysis.