scarcity (Sect. 9.3.2), presenting lessons learned from participatory approaches to
environmental valuation carried out in Thailand (Sect. 9.3.3).
3
9.3.1 Stakeholder Participation in a Priority Setting for Research
and Development: From Simplistic Ranking to Formalized
Decision-Support Processes
In the preparation phase of the Uplands Program, simple ranking methods were used to
give farmers in selected villages in the Thai and Vietnamese uplands the opportunity to
set their own social and economic priorities for the coming 5-year period. This was
done by presenting them with various pictures showing a whole range of agricultural
and non-agricultural subjects (Neef and Heidhues 2005). Not surprisingly, the results
unveiled a significant variation in priorities depending on the socio-economic status,
ethnic origin, age and gender of the respondents. Several methodological and conceptual concerns with regard to farmers’ priority-setting, such as difficulties in
distinguishing between research and development projects and a tendency to give
‘politically correct’ answers, were considered in the process (cf. Neubert 2000). We
also needed to address the potential trade-offs resulting from the demand for scientific
excellence on the one hand, and the relevance of the research program for farmers and
other local stakeholders on the other (Neef and Heidhues 2005).
A more sophisticated and formalized tool, the Analytical Hierarchy Process
(AHP) – as first developed by Saaty (1980) and later widely employed worldwide
(e.g., Vaidya and Kumar 2006) – has been applied by Thai researchers from Chiang
Mai University in the Thai agriculture/natural resource context. Ekasingh et al.
(1996) first introduced AHP to enable groups of farmers to select suitable areas for
rice-fish farming. During the first step, the technical, economic and social criteria
needed to establish rice-fish farming were obtained from resource persons, after
which farmers were solicited to do pairwise comparisons of these criteria within
groups. The process resulted in weightings, which were then incorporated into a
Geographic Information System that was able to depict suitable land for rice-fish
farming. Based on this pilot project, M. Ekasingh and his team developed a Thai
software program to deal with the mathematical algorithms, called Ror Tor Sor,
which is short for Ruam Tud Sinjai, or ‘joint decision-making’ (Ekasingh et al.
2006). Since the program is in Thai, it enables the active participation of Thai
farmers. AHP, in connection with the software program, has been used to make
optimal crop choices given different constraints with regard to land endowments
and market access (Ekasingh et al. 2007), to engage communities in making
rational use of their community funds (Ekasingh et al. 2008) and to choose the
most suitable occupations for community members given many social and economic constraints (Ekasingh et al. 2009).
3 This section was written by Benchaphun Ekasingh, Nicolas Becu, Melvin Lippe, Georg Cadisch,
Oliver Fro ¨r, Pepijn Schreinemachers, Franz Heidhues and Andreas Neef.
9 Participatory Approaches to Research and Development in the Southeast. . .
333
environmental valuation carried out in Thailand (Sect. 9.3.3).
3
9.3.1 Stakeholder Participation in a Priority Setting for Research
and Development: From Simplistic Ranking to Formalized
Decision-Support Processes
In the preparation phase of the Uplands Program, simple ranking methods were used to
give farmers in selected villages in the Thai and Vietnamese uplands the opportunity to
set their own social and economic priorities for the coming 5-year period. This was
done by presenting them with various pictures showing a whole range of agricultural
and non-agricultural subjects (Neef and Heidhues 2005). Not surprisingly, the results
unveiled a significant variation in priorities depending on the socio-economic status,
ethnic origin, age and gender of the respondents. Several methodological and conceptual concerns with regard to farmers’ priority-setting, such as difficulties in
distinguishing between research and development projects and a tendency to give
‘politically correct’ answers, were considered in the process (cf. Neubert 2000). We
also needed to address the potential trade-offs resulting from the demand for scientific
excellence on the one hand, and the relevance of the research program for farmers and
other local stakeholders on the other (Neef and Heidhues 2005).
A more sophisticated and formalized tool, the Analytical Hierarchy Process
(AHP) – as first developed by Saaty (1980) and later widely employed worldwide
(e.g., Vaidya and Kumar 2006) – has been applied by Thai researchers from Chiang
Mai University in the Thai agriculture/natural resource context. Ekasingh et al.
(1996) first introduced AHP to enable groups of farmers to select suitable areas for
rice-fish farming. During the first step, the technical, economic and social criteria
needed to establish rice-fish farming were obtained from resource persons, after
which farmers were solicited to do pairwise comparisons of these criteria within
groups. The process resulted in weightings, which were then incorporated into a
Geographic Information System that was able to depict suitable land for rice-fish
farming. Based on this pilot project, M. Ekasingh and his team developed a Thai
software program to deal with the mathematical algorithms, called Ror Tor Sor,
which is short for Ruam Tud Sinjai, or ‘joint decision-making’ (Ekasingh et al.
2006). Since the program is in Thai, it enables the active participation of Thai
farmers. AHP, in connection with the software program, has been used to make
optimal crop choices given different constraints with regard to land endowments
and market access (Ekasingh et al. 2007), to engage communities in making
rational use of their community funds (Ekasingh et al. 2008) and to choose the
most suitable occupations for community members given many social and economic constraints (Ekasingh et al. 2009).
3 This section was written by Benchaphun Ekasingh, Nicolas Becu, Melvin Lippe, Georg Cadisch,
Oliver Fro ¨r, Pepijn Schreinemachers, Franz Heidhues and Andreas Neef.
9 Participatory Approaches to Research and Development in the Southeast. . .
333