ADAPTIVE FIELD - TESTING FOR RURAL DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS

When conducted within the context of an ongoing rural development project, this experimentation process tests the appropriateness of individual project components (e.g., technologies, interventions). The handbook was prepared by Development Alternatives, Inc., to help designers, managers, and technicians involved in developing small farms make better policy decisions at relatively low cost. The report points out that other major planning strategies, such as the use of a project blueprint or the implementation of classic social experimentation, preclude any responsive project modification based on new information obtained during the project. Adaptive field testing, on the other hand, provides a dynamic, immediate mechanism by which an ongoing project can be adjusted to suit local conditions. In addition to evaluating an intervention (e.g., bridge, dam) and the method of building the intervention, the process can be used to assess project management.