Participatory Rural Appraisal (A Case Study, Approach And Implementation)

Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) is the tool that helps in identification of problem and researchable issues to explore solutions for short as well as and long term benefits. The main theme of the PRA studies are (i) to address the socio-economic implications and consequences oftechnologies, products and processes; (ii) to generate a detailed account of technology products andprocesses, used by producers with respect to production scenario,problems, opportunities, and futuristic approaches; (iii) to inculcate culture of teamwork and multi-disciplinaryperspective among the academicians/ professionals and (iv) to provide comprehensive insight in to the role of private industryand other stakeholders in the value chain. 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 systems. 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 thatlocality. The village selected to carry out the study was Bar-ka-Nagla, which was located at a distance of 25 km from Mathura and 4 km from ICAR-Central Institute for Research on Goats (CIRG), Makhdoom, Uttar Pradesh, India. This study was aimed to explore the problems and to provide specific solutions to the problems at village level. PRA also provides an opportunity to the farmers to analyze their livelihood issues.