ADMAAR: Appraisal of Agricultural and Rural Development Projects

Module code: ADMAAR

Module provider: School of Agriculture, Policy and Development

Credits: 20

Level: Postgraduate Masters

When you'll be taught: Semester 2

Module convenor: Professor Chittur Srinivasan, email: C.S.Srinivasan@reading.ac.uk

Pre-requisite module(s): Before taking this module, you must have a basic knowledge of microeconomics (Open)

Co-requisite module(s):

Pre-requisite or Co-requisite module(s):

Module(s) excluded:

Placement information: NA

Academic year: 2024/5

Available to visiting students: Yes

Talis reading list: No

Last updated: 20 May 2024

Overview

Module aims and purpose

This module aims to enable students to:

• Appreciate the role of project appraisal in making informed decisions on the allocation of resources for development projects in developing country settings.
• Understand the distinction between financial, economic and social dimensions of project appraisal.
• Understand the need for integrating environmental assessment in project appraisal.
• Understand how macroeconomic, policy and management issues affect the outcome of agricultural and rural development projects.

Module learning outcomes

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. A Critically analyse concepts and tools of project appraisal and apply them in the context of real-life projects and case studies, including the impact of policy issues.
2. Conduct discounted cash flow analysis and basic economic cost-benefit analysis of development projects. 
3. Understand the dimensions of social appraisal and environmental assessment including likely impact on different income groups, social groups and gendered impacts. 
4. Effectively present the results of project appraisal and their implications to policy makers for making investment decisions. 

Module content

Lectures

• Introduction: Role of projects in agricultural and rural development
• The dimensions and nature of appraisal.
• Financial and economic appraisal.
  • Discounted cash flow analysis.
  • Economic cost benefit analysis
  • Risk and sensitivity analysis.
• Environmental assessment.
• Social appraisal.
• Assessing the impact of policy on projects.

Exercises

• Financial appraisal exercises.
• Economic appraisal case study
• Environmental appraisal exercises.
• Social appraisal case study. 

Structure

Teaching and learning methods

The module topics will be covered through lectures supported by pre-recorded screencasts and student independent study for each week supported by readings/reading lists and learning materials on Blackboard. There will also be weekly practical exercise sessions in a computer lab for appraisal exercises (case studies) on financial appraisal, economic appraisal, environmental appraisal and social appraisal.

Study hours

At least 44 hours of scheduled teaching and learning activities will be delivered in person, with the remaining hours for scheduled and self-scheduled teaching and learning activities delivered either in person or online. You will receive further details about how these hours will be delivered before the start of the module.

Please note the independent study hours above are notional numbers of hours; each student will approach studying in different ways. We would advise you to reflect on your learning and the number of hours you are allocating to these tasks.

Semester 1 The hours in this column may include hours during the Christmas holiday period.

Semester 2 The hours in this column may include hours during the Easter holiday period.

Summer The hours in this column will take place during the summer holidays and may be at the start and/or end of the module.

Assessment

Requirements for a pass

Students need to achieve an overall module mark of 50% to pass this module.

Summative assessment

Penalties for late submission of summative assessment

The Support Centres will apply the following penalties for work submitted late:

Assessments with numerical marks

• where the piece of work is submitted after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): 10% of the total marks available for that piece of work will be deducted from the mark for each working day (or part thereof) following the deadline up to a total of three working days;
• the mark awarded due to the imposition of the penalty shall not fall below the threshold pass mark, namely 40% in the case of modules at Levels 4-6 (i.e. undergraduate modules for Parts 1-3) and 50% in the case of Level 7 modules offered as part of an Integrated Masters or taught postgraduate degree programme;
• where the piece of work is awarded a mark below the threshold pass mark prior to any penalty being imposed, and is submitted up to three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline), no penalty shall be imposed;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension to the deadline): a mark of zero will be recorded.

Assessments marked Pass/Fail

• where the piece of work is submitted within three working days of the deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): no penalty will be applied;
• where the piece of work is submitted more than three working days after the original deadline (or any formally agreed extension of the deadline): a grade of Fail will be awarded.

The University policy statement on penalties for late submission can be found at: https://www.reading.ac.uk/cqsd/-/media/project/functions/cqsd/documents/qap/penaltiesforlatesubmission.pdf

You are strongly advised to ensure that coursework is submitted by the relevant deadline. You should note that it is advisable to submit work in an unfinished state rather than to fail to submit any work.

Formative assessment

Formative assessment is any task or activity which creates feedback (or feedforward) for you about your learning, but which does not contribute towards your overall module mark.

Practical exercises attempted in computer lab sessions will serve as formative assessment with feedback given.

Reassessment

Additional costs