A Comparative Analysis of the Application of Participatory Rural Appraisal Approaches - Term Paper Example

Qualitative Paper A Comparative Analysis of the Application of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) Approaches Introduction The Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) approach is an economically viable method which is widely used in planning and management strategies of governments in intervention and developmental programs over the past decades. The PRA program has been described by the Chambers (1994) as a series of approaches and methods that focus on incorporating the suggestions and opinions of local residents from rural regions in processes such as policy designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation. A brief review of articles In order to facilitate better understanding of the PRA approaches three articles have been taken for analysis and a brief review of each is provided below In the first article by Pan et al. (2012), the focus is on the strained relationship between the people who manage the Haba Snow Mountain Nature Reserve located in the Yunnan Province of China and the surrounding communities. The authors have cited various conflicting interests that exists between these two parties. In conclusion they have sought for implementation of effective actions that includes strategies such as improvement of economic incentives. In the article by Zhu et al. (2010) the focus is on the farming and grazing practices and the land used for pastoral-farming which are the main source of livelihood of people living in the interior regions of Mongolia in China. From the study the author has concluded that the livelihoods of each family has its own form of livelihood and the PRA strategies needs to be custom-made for a particular family based on their income levels, lifestyle and satisfaction. In addition, as there is a connection between the land used and the type of livelihood this also should be taken into consideration. In the third article written by Zhu et al. (2012) the various types of land available for farming practices of people living along the Sangong River Basin of Xinjiang in China is explored by the authors. The study concludes that the type of land used by the families is dependent on various factors such as income levels, structure of planting, the crops grown and the quality of land. Comparative Analysis of the articles A comparative analysis of the specific PRA approaches adopted in each article will be done in a questionnaire format. The major questions that would be addressed include the purpose of the research and whether it has been clearly specified in the article, the scope of the research and whether the study population included is representative of the purpose, is the methodology used clearly explained, the techniques used in the study and a comparative analysis of the methods used in each paper and their strengths and weaknesses. The questionnaire is as follows. What is the main purpose of the research? Has it been well addressed in the article? The main purpose in the first article is to explore the relationship between the management of the Haba Snow Mountain Nature Reserve and the local community. Though the authors provides an elaborate account on the natural resources in China, they fail to clearly and explicitly state their research objective. The second article initially explains the concept of livelihood and how it pertains to their research and then cites the main purpose. As stated earlier the main purpose of this article is to focus on farming and grazing practices and land used for pastoral farming and provide suitable PRA approaches to the family on the basis of their income levels and lifestyle. The third article clearly defines its research purpose which is to focus on the various types of land used for farming by people in the Sangong River Basin. The article further claims that there are not many studies that have dealt with the diverse types of lands used for farming in China’s oasis regions and hence the present article hope to provide a detailed account on these lands and their use for various farming practices. What is the research scope and population, and are they representative? The scope of the first article that deals with the Haba Snow Mountain Nature Reserve and surrounding communities has been defined on the basis of government documents in which the geographical boundaries of the region under consideration has been clearly mentioned. However, the authors have not included all the surrounding regions in the study and the peripheral areas taken for the study is way lower than the government statistics. According to the government data the Nature Reserve has covered an area of 21,622 hm2, and is surrounded by 23 villages and towns. The article however, has included only seven towns and villages which closely surround the Haba Snow Mountain Reserve region. The authors fail to provide a convincing explanation on why only these towns have been included in the study and the study population is not representative of the entire community. The authors selected 150 respondents to answer the study questionnaire from which they only chose 133 interviewees from various backgrounds for the semi-structured interviews. The authors also mention that these participants were categorized under three groups on the basis of their careers and income levels. However, the study participants cannot be considered to represent the entire community in the region which has a complicated population structure. Nearly 67% of the local residents belong to the minority group and hence may have different notions towards approaches undertaken in environmental governance (Lv et al. 2004). Thus the scope of the study and the population chosen for the study provided by the authors is lacking in clarity. In the second article the scope extends to the Uxin Banner located in the southwest of the Ordos grassland and he authors have clearly defined the geographical coordinates and the square area of the region. The research area under consideration has a characteristic vegetation and climatic pattern and is ideally a typical farming-pastoral transitional zone. Totally 153 grazing and farming households were inquired systematically and various factors such as income levels, age and profession of the members in the household have been considered. Thus the study population can be considered to represent the entire population in the region. It can be representative in the respect of population structure. However, the guidance of local officials has been sought for the selection of study participants and this has raised doubts on whether the information provided in the study was influenced by the local government. Thus while the scope of the study is representative of the community, there is a possibility that the selection of study participants is biased. In the third article the authors have clearly defined the scope of the study as the Sangong River Basin that covers a square of 1670 km2. The authors also mention that the region in a typical mountain-oasis-desert area and is a fitting representative of the lands found in the oasis regions. The 240 participants in the study have been chosen from different parts of the region and are hence representative of the research area. The households present upstream, mid-way and downstream of the Sangong River Basin were covered in the study. In addition, the study participants were also grouped on the basis of the different population structure. Thus the scope and selection of the study participants in this article can be taken to represent the research area under study. 1. Has the paper clearly explained the method used, what techniques have been adopted in the paper? The first articles included research methods such as semi-structured interviews, household surveys and transect walks. The questionnaire provided to the 150 local residents who were chosen as the study participants focused on basic information of households, their views about the policies pertaining to land use and the changes observed in the lands used for cultivation. In the semi-structured interviews 133 respondents working in various work departments such as township government and travel agencies were selected to answer questions pertaining to current state of resource conservation and its effect on their livelihood and the oher basic needs of he local community. Though transect walks has been mentioned as one of the methods used for the study the authors have failed to provide a detailed account of the methods and its application to the current research study. The second article has included three study methods and the authors have provided a clear explanation of the methods used. The methods used include semi-structured interviews, questionnaire surveys and ranking and scoring techniques. The first two methods which are based on interviews have focused on household information, the livelihood of the people, the options available for land use and their views on environmental policies such as converting cropland to forest. In the ranking and scoring method a matrix has been designed to show the relationship between types of household and livelihood, and the relationship between household types and income level. Thus the authors have clearly explained the methods used in the study. The third article also includes methods such as semi-structured interviews, questionnaire surveys, seasonal calendar, group discussion and ranking techniques. The methods involving interviews namely the semi-structured and questionnaire interviews include questions pertaining to the various options for land use, the expected income, the present percentage of land used for cultivation and various categories of crops planted. The seasonal calendar provides a detailed account of the changes in precipitation distribution and crop yields in order to explain the relationship between the climatic conditions on the growth and yield of crops. The matrix has been used in the article to show the influence of various factors, such as income level, land size and its integrative quality and the available options for land use and crop categories. The integrative quality of the land has been used as a factor for distinguishing participants with varying land resources. 2. Was one paper methodologically stronger than the other papers, why and how? On a comparative basis the third article by Zhu et al. (2012) has a stronger methodological backing than the other two articles. The first article by Pan et al. (2012) shows a weak application of PRA approaches in terms of the methods used to ascertain the study purpose. The authors of the first article also fail to provide a clear definition of the purpose of the research. In contrast there is more clarity in the study purpose in the remaining two articles. The third article is also more representative of the research area, the study region and the population selected for the study as there is sufficient background data provided by the authors pertaining to these aspects and a clear strategy has been followed for the selection of study participants. The information provided in the second article fails to match up with the first article in terms of clarity it nevertheless provides sufficient information on the research area and study participants. However, this information has not clearly detailed in the first article and in addition the selection of the study participants also seems to be biased as a result of unilateral factors of group distribution. From the articles it is obvious that a diverse array of techniques pertaining to PRA approaches such as interviewing methods, seasonal calendar, group discussions and ranking techniques have been used in the process of research. The use of multiple PRA techniques has enabled the authors to develop a convincing and effective research protocol. Among the methods used the semi-structured interviews and questionnaire survey have been used to bring more clarity to the research purpose. The design and content of these questions that pertains to details regarding the current situation of resource conservation and the basic needs of local residents tend to focus on the broader needs of the community. Conclusion In conclusion, on a comparative and analytical scale the third article by Zhu et al. (2012) provides a more comprehensive and complete account of the application of PRA approaches to a particular community. On the other hand the first article conducted by Pan et al. (2012) is less comprehensive than the other two articles in its application of PRA to the study purpose. In all the articles the use of interviewing methods such as semi-structured interviews and questionnaire surveys are some of the most frequently used PRA approaches in research studies. Read More