Necessity of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) Utilization in rural research

PRA is intended to enable local communities to conduct their own analysis and to plan and take action. PRA involves project staff learning together with villagers about the village. Much of the spread of participatory rural appraisal (PRA) as an emerging family of approaches and methods has been lateral, South-South, through experiential learning and changes in behavior, with different local applications. Rapid spread has made quality assurance a concern, with dangers from "instant fashion", rushing, formalism and ruts. Promising potentials include farmers' own farming systems research, alternatives to questionnaire surveys, monitoring, evaluation and lateral spread by local people, empowerment of the poorer and weaker, and policy review. Changes in personal behavior and attitudes, and in organizational cultures, are implied. PRA parallels and resonates with paradigm shifts in the social and natural sciences, business management, and development thinking, supporting decentralization, local diversity, and personal responsibility. [Abbas Emami, Alireza Bolandnazar and Mojtaba Sadighi. Necessity of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) Utilization in rural research. Life Science Journal. 2011; 8(3): 11-16] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com.