Date of Award

1990

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Human Resource Education and Workforce Development

First Advisor

Michael Burnett

Abstract

The Central Visayas Regional Project 1 (CVRP) in the Philippines uses a Farming Systems Research and Extension (FSR&E) approach which addresses the interrelated components facing the rural household system. A major principle of FSR&E is local participation. This study was conducted to measure the level of popular participation in a CVRP "working area". The study measured local performance and importance of activities relating to the planning, execution, and evaluation of CVRP projects as perceived by beneficiaries. It determined which of the participation activities had a higher score for perceived importance than for perceived performance. Then it determined the relationship between various program variables and the participants' perceived performance of those activities. The CVRP showed progress in achieving physical targets and responding to its clientele's concerns. However, the clients' continued dependence on the CVRP remained a problem. FSR&E should be applicable to on-site conditions. Popular participation is stressed because the clientele understand the environment for which innovations are designed. Their participation also empowers them toward self determination. The author designed a spoken interview survey to measure local participation in CVRP activities. Respondents first gave information regarding their participation in the CVRP. They then rated local performance and importance of twenty-three participation activities using a 0-4 scale. The author compiled statistics for the 331 interviews. All of the activities had importance scores that were statistically higher than those for perceived performance. Five had importance scores which were defined as substantively higher because they exceeded the performance scores by at least one half point. These were led by the activities entitled "Organizing Trips" and "Looking for Outside Resources". Length of participation had a small relationship (r value) with Looking for Outside Resources. Performance scores for upland farming activities and organizations were generally higher relative to their counterparts in nearshore fishery areas. Leaders showed significant differences in perceived performance in "Experimentation", "Enforcing Laws" and "Organizing Trips". The author advocated measures to increase local contributions in obtaining resources and adapting to local conditions. He suggested giving particular attention to nearshore activities and increasing local contribution to training sessions.

Pages

134

DOI

10.31390/gradschool_disstheses.4991

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