Field Experience Training: Pragmatic Multidisciplinary Approach for Developing Comprehensive Village Development Action Plan

Abstract

India is primarily an agrarian society. Indian villages and villagers largely depend on agriculture for livelihoods. The progress of agrarian society is crucial for sustainable development of the countries like India. Advances in agricultural research and development are the key to attain this. In this realm, proper identification and prioritization of farming-related and farmer-related problems is crucial for developing interventions in participatory mode. There are multiple approaches and methods for participatory problem identification and analysis. One such reliable and widely adopted approach is Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA). In this context, Field Experience Training (FET) is an opportunity for newly recruited agricultural scientists to explore the field-level real agricultural problems. A study carried out by a multidisciplinary team of newly recruited scientists under expert guidance using PRA methodology revealed the existing problems in the villages including severe ground water depletion, existence of problematic soil, in-effective utilisation of existing village and farm resources, crop and animal production and marketing issues faced by farming community. Based on assessment of existing situation the multidisciplinary team developed comprehensive village development action plan to provide a unique database and blueprint for local developmental departments and researchers to act on existing problems for betterment of farming communities and thereby village development.