Abstract:
Participation of the beneficiaries in agricultural development, planning and implementation is well
recognized in agricultural programmes. This provides an opportunity to identify farmers’ needs at the
beginning and further, involves the community in the entire planning cycle. Participatory Rural Appraisal
(PRA) techniques can be used to bring the beneficiaries to the process of development activities, while
saving time and money. This study was conducted in Kobbakaduwa village of M uruthalawa Grama
Niladhari (GN) division; Kandy district Main objective was to identify the farmers’ problems and to
suggest relevant solutions which could incorporate to future agricultural development programme of
Hadabima. A group of students of the university of Ruhuna, Hadabima officers, grass-root level
development workers and farmers participated in this event A set of PRA tools such as resource map,
venn diagram, seasonal calendar, pair-wise ranking and matrix ranking were used to obtain information.
Resource map revealed the resources, community assets such as community hall, institutions such as post
office, hospital, temple, school etc., agro-ecological and general conditions of the village. Venn diagram
discovered, death-aid society and welfare union are the most important and closest institutes. According
to seasonal calendar, the highest rainfall has been observed in November and the least in February. The
highest labour force was recorded at die beginning of cultivation during January to March and the least in
April and December with post harvesting of their own cultivations. Farmers identified main problems of
the village using pair-wise ranking and among them soil erosion seemed to be the most burning issue.
Matrix ranking showed that arecanut is the most suitable crop to grow under the environmental
conditions in the village. At the end of the activities, leaders were selected and they intended to participate
in the planning activities of the Hadabima for future agricultural development process in the village.
