Experimental Agriculture

Table of Contents - July 2012 - Volume 48, Issue 03  

Research Article

PARTICIPATORY IMPACT ASSESSMENT OF RICE PARBOILING VIDEOS WITH WOMEN IN BENIN

ESPÉRANCE ZOSSOUa1a2 c1, PAUL VAN MELEa3 p1, JONAS WANVOEKEa4 p2 and PHILIPPE LEBAILLYa1

a1 Gembloux Agro-Bio-Tech, Liège University, Wallonia, Belgium

a2 Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), 01 B.P. 2031, Cotonou, Benin

a3 Previously with Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), 01 B.P. 2031, Cotonou, Benin

a4 Previously with Africa Rice Center (AfricaRice), 01 B.P. 2031, Cotonou, Benin

SUMMARY

Using the sustainable livelihoods framework to evaluate the impact of a farmer-to-farmer video on the improved rice parboiling technology, women in Benin rated financial, social, human, natural and physical capital stocks for the baseline year (2006) and the impact year (2009) on a 0–5 scale. Women who had watched the video and those who had not, but who lived in the same villages, perceived a significant improvement in four out of five livelihood capitals while processors in control villages did not perceive any significant change. Apart from testing the sustainable livelihoods conceptual framework as a participatory impact assessment tool for video-mediated rural learning, this study shows how farmer-to-farmer training videos helped to improve multiple livelihood assets.

(Accepted February 16 2012)

(Online publication March 27 2012)

Correspondence:

c1 Corresponding Author: Email: benezos@yahoo.fr

p1 Currently with Agro-Insight, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium

p2 Currently with Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, the Netherlands