Participatory design and evaluation of direct effects (change of attitude) in local agricultural innovation projects

Main Article Content

R. Ortiz

Abstract

The participatory monitoring and evaluation of
the local agricultural innovation processes strengthen as a
change of the methodological approach, in which community,
donors y politicians get together to decide how to measure
project advances and what actions should be implemented to
maintain and improve results. Starting from the indicators of
direct effects and products, two practical tools are known for
planning, self-monitoring, self-evaluating and externally
evaluating local agricultural innovation processes, to let design
operation plans, identify gradual progress when fulfilling the
predicted goals, as well as visualize possible impacts. This
paper presents and discusses information gathered at the
workshops celebrated during 2007 and 2008 in the Local
Centers of Agricultural Innovation (CLIA), with producers and
other local actors participating in nine provinces from the west,
center and east of Cuba. It shows the CLIA case of Las Tunas.
Also, it presents the self-evaluation of a group of farmers taking
part in the Participatory Plant Breeding (FP) since 2000 to 2008,
in order to evaluate the direct effects y impacts reached, all of
them set in concluded FP and PIAL projects guided by the
National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (INCA), along with
other research and training institutions linked to the agricultural
sector. The first case describes the steps followed up to change
attitude by using a five-steps qualitative scale that enables to
evaluate more clearly the indicators of direct effects on its
evolution and where the initial value is the base line. The
second case employs a group of indicators with a 10-levels
scale to measure FP impact on the farm and family, self-
evaluating those involved as they were and where they are
today. Both forms are proved to be nice indicators of the direct
effect reached on the target groups.

Article Details

How to Cite
Ortiz, R. (2012). Participatory design and evaluation of direct effects (change of attitude) in local agricultural innovation projects. Cultivos Tropicales, 31(4), 12–19. Retrieved from https://ediciones.inca.edu.cu/index.php/ediciones/article/view/72
Section
Original Article

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