Learning from the farmers using Participatory Rural Appraisal Tools

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is a systematic, semi structured activity conducted on site, by a multidisciplinary team. It is basically a bottom to top approach of learning rural life forms with and by rural people. Due to active participation of community members as well as scientists, PRA has become a useful method to focus attention on people, their livelihood and relationship with social and economic factors. It is a good technique to help the community members in general and farmers in particular make an appraisal of their livelihoods and issues related to it. PRA is an exercise that deals with temporal and spatial issues in agricultural activities. Spatial information supplies the database about soil type, water resources, land use, land pattern and topography of different life support system. Temporal data helps in seasonal analysis, adoption and awareness about the new technologies and human dimension helps in knowing the facts about participation, gender issues, disaggregation, cultural values and ethics of the people of that locality.

Dr.D.Kalaivanan, M.Sc.(Agri.),Ph.D. in Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, is presently working as a Scientist at Directorate of Cashew Research, Puttur, Karnataka, India. His field of specialization is in mainly soil chemistry, soil fertility and plant nutrition, tracer studies and organic nutrient management.