This document discusses participatory rural appraisal (PRA) and related methodologies. PRA involves local communities in the assessment of their needs and resources through participatory techniques. It aims to gather qualitative information in a bottom-up, flexible manner. Some key PRA techniques discussed include participatory mapping, seasonal calendars, wealth rankings, and semi-structured interviewing. PRA seeks to overcome some limitations of earlier rapid rural appraisal approaches by increasing participation and incorporating local knowledge. Related methodologies like participatory technology development also take collaborative, community-based approaches.

1. PARTICIPATORY
RURAL
APPRAISAL

2. D.Lokeshwaran
Pg Scholar
Department of Agricultural Extension
Course Teacher
Dr.J.Meenambigai
Associate Professor
Department of Agricultural Extension

4. 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.

8. 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

9. PRA TECHNIQUES - METHODOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES
• Visualisation
Verbalisation - Documentation
• Sequencing
• Optimal Ignorance
Triangulation

10. 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.

11. 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.

12. 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.

14. 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.

16. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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.

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

26. 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.

27. 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.

29. PRA
TOOLS

32. 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).

34. 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.

36. 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.

40. 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.

41. 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.

43. 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

44. 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

45. 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.

46. 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.

47. 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.

48. 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.

49. 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.

50. § 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.

51. 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.