Participatory Rural Appraisal Techniques for Problem Identification and Formulation of Village Agricultural Development Plan of Chosla Village

Abstract

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) paves a way to understand the grass root level problems faced by farmers following which successful research programs can be proposed. The present study was carried out at Chosla Village of Tonk District in Rajasthan. The PRA tools such as transect walk, agro-ecological mapping, social mapping, time trend, seasonal calendar, gender analysis, timeline, livelihood analysis, technology mapping, consequence diagram and SWOT analysis. Around 20 major problems were identified; in which aphid in mustard, fragmented lands, non-availability of irrigation water were the top three agricultural problems whereas among the non-agricultural problems: sanitation, lack of higher Education facility and lack of awareness about govt. schemes occupied the top three positions. The action plans for these various problems were formulated by the researchers which would eventually serve as the solutions to improve the socio and economic status of the peoples of the Chosla village.