PRA Techniques

 Social Map
 Venn Diagramme
 Mobility Map
 Agricultural Time Line
 Time Trend
Bharat S. Sontakki (bharatss@naarm.ernet.in)
 Social Mapping

1.Why social knowledge for scientists?

•Adoption
•Rejection PLAN
TD
Social issues •Discontinuance TAR
•Overadoption TTr

Technology map
 Social Map
 It is a participatory visual map of the village.
 Drawn by villagers under facilitation of PRA
team to present and discuss about various
facets of village social life.
 It enables to understand village social life in
terms of structure, location and distribution of
households and other important social centres
like chaupal, places of worship, places of
social interaction, etc.
 Purpose
To study, understand and analyze village
social life in terms of

social structure/stratification,
social processes,
social facilities,
socially relevant issues and
social problems of the village.
 Issues Covered
 Location and ownership of dwellings and
buildings
 Social stratification
 Pattern of influence: who dominates, for what
 Institutions
 Value systems
 Leadership pattern
 Social norms
 Issues Covered
 Social issues and problems
 Social interaction (cooperation/competition
/conflict)
 Dependency ratio
 Ownership of assets and cattle
 Beneficiaries of development programmes
 Health characteristics
 Literacy levels
 Key Questions
 What are the approximate boundaries of the village
with regard to social interaction and social services?

 How many households are found in the village and

where are they located?

 Is the number of households growing or shrinking?

 What are the social structures and institutions found

in the village and what is their role in village
development?

 What are the various social processes in the village

and how they are affecting village development?
 How to Facilitate?
 Ask key informants (KIs) to draw Village map showing
all households.
 For orientation, it will be helpful to draw roads and
significant spots of the village into the map.
 Ask KIs to show institutions, buildings and places that
offer some kind of social service or which are popular
venues of social interaction.
 Encourage KIs to explore other social issues and
indicate the same using a suitable key or legend.
 Make sure that your copy of the map has a key
explaining different items and symbols used on the map.
Institutions and their impact on villagers
Instn 2

Promotion

Influence
Technologies Instn 1
Villagers

Instn 3
 Venn Diagram
 Highlights importance and influence
patterns of key individuals & institutions in
various aspects of village life.

 Ascertains relationships of individuals/

institutions with villagers.

 Reflects nature of communication.

 Identifies relationships & roles in decision

making in village planning & development.
 Procedure
 Identify key individuals & institutions responsible for
decision making in a given area.
 List out their roles & responsibilities.
 Identify degree of contact & overlap between them in
terms of relationships & decision making.
 Obtain information from secondary sources, group
interactions, key informants.
 Show relationships using circles (chapattis).
 Size of circle (chapatti) indicates its importance &
scope.
 Procedure
Relationship Patterns

No Relationship

Information flow

Some Cooperation

Considerable Cooperation
How do we indicate relationship patterns

Circles are
independent No Relationship

Circles touch
each other Information Flow

Circles overlap Some

Cooperation in
Decision Making
VENN DIAGRAMME showing INSTITUTIONS and AGENCIES concerned with
DAM MANAGEMENT, MWENJE DAM, ZIMBABWE (1991)
Study of mobility of villagers
REDUCE OUTSIDE MOBILITY

To save time, money, energy & efforts

 Mobility Map

 Explores spatial mobility/outside contacts

with reasons thereof
 Highlights activity-wise importance of
places
 Influenced by socio-economic conditions,
gender, age, nature of work,
resourcefulness, transport facilities &
access
 Procedure
• Identify appropriate place and persons
• Encourage participants to draw mobility
map by placing village at the centre and
indicating places visited at the periphery
• For each place of mobility indicate the,
purpose, distance, time taken, mode of
transport & cost
 Encourage use of activity legends like

ACTIVITY LEGEND
Job/Farming 
Health/Medical 
Market/Marketing $$$$$$$$$$$$$$
Education 
Entertainment    
 Mobility table of the village

Destination Distance Mode of Fare Purpose

(km) transport (Rs)

Kanchrapara 8 Bus/auto 4.00 Service, market,

marketing, cinema hall,
college, train

Naihati 15 Tempo/van 10.00 Fish marketing, train

Kalyani 15 Bus/train 10.00 Health (JNM), input

purchase, education

Kolkata 53 Bus/train 16.00 Costly input purchase,

job, entertainment,
higher study

Palashi 1 Walking - High school, ashram

Haringhata 10 bus 5.00 College, veterinary

surgeon

Majhipara 2 Walking/cycle - Post office, bank, hat

Farm/Agricultural Time Line:
 A.k.a. historical profile
 Helps to know history of major remembered
events influencing agricultural development in a
village
 Indicates a causal link between past and present
 A historical account is given by the key
informants of how different aspects of village life
have changed and made impact on agricultural
development and social, economic and agro-
ecological conditions in the village
 Objectives

 Useful for sensitizing the R&D agents to the

importance of past for understanding the
present and planning for the future

 To obtain historical accounts of changes in

demography, socio-economics, communication,
technology diffusion & adoption, farm
production, infrastructure, etc.
 Procedure

 Identify key informants.

 Ask them to present a historical

development of their village vis-à-vis
facilities, production changes,
technologies, etc.
Trend analysis (time series data)
•Pest
•Yield
Remedial measures
•Productivity
•Resource use
 Time Trend
 It is a participatory visual method of analyzing the
trends and fluctuations in the variables that influence
village life.

Objectives

 To identify the changes / fluctuations that have

occurred over a period of time in the variables
influencing village life.

 To explore the ‘coping behaviour’ of villagers during

adversities.
 Procedure
 Time trends are usually depicted in graphics (bar/line
graphs) to show the trend of crop/animal production,
commodity prices, human/cattle population, etc.
 Two separate time trend analyses have to be carried
out.
 One analysis will focus on crop production, while the
other on animal production
 Generate one graphic to show the trend of
production of commodity (e.g., trend in
wheat/milk/fish production during last 25 years)
 Another graphic will focus on trend of price/net
returns/cost of production of the commodity
 Procedure
 Identify KIs

 Focus interview on the trends of crop/ animal

production and prices/cost of production/net returns,
etc. of farm commodities

 Explore for information of past 10 - 25 years

 Try to locate the fluctuations like the ‘unusual highs’

and ‘unusual lows’ and explore the reasons thereof

 Encourage KIs to narrate the coping mechanisms

during fluctuations and adversities