Emergence of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) Technique as a Strategy towards Sustainable Development: A Sri Lankan Experience

In this millennium all the development activities are mostly focused on sustainable development, i.e. the development which fulfils the requirements of the present without disturbing the utilization of future generation. Basically, the sustainable development deals with environmental, social, and economical initiations. In relation to these three objectives, community participation plays a key role as an effective strategy for sustainable development. Among the numerous types of participation, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) technique is the most relevant effective method to receive the participation. Because, it has been strengthen by bottom up approach, well defined objectives, practicable solutions, and remedies. Hence, the out come of such an event is most productive rather than a top bottom approach techniques. In fact, a PRA was practiced to develop a strategic plan for tsunami affected village – Bambaranda east, in southern province of Sri Lanka. PRA sessions were carried out during February, 2007 by the Department of Agric. Economics of Ruhuna University, Sri Lanka in collaboration with Japanese Green Resource Agency, Japan.Participatory mapping, venn diagram, matrix ranking, preference ranking, and pair - wise ranking were demonstrated to gather information from the community. The tsunami affected area, including the paddy fields, four irrigation canals were shown by the group with the help of the participatory map. Preference ranking was resulted the reconstruction of irrigation canals as the most important rehabilitation activity to recover the livelihood of villagers. Intrusion of sea water into the paddy fields was the main limitation revealed by the pair - wise ranking. The second limitation marked as unavailability of enough fertilizer and the dilapidated irrigation canals was the third that has to be solved. Matrix ranking was employed to identify the most facilitated sectors by the government and other institutes in order to detect the areas which need to pay further attention. By that, the community realized that the rehabilitation of irrigation canal is the least benefited area where any development activity should be addressed in order to up grade their livelihood. Finally, a venn diagram was executed to identify the service providing entities in the community. It explored the Agrarian Service Center (ASC) as the most important service providing institute which keeps a close relationship with the community. The second and third places were acquired by Sanasa and Samurdhi office. Therefore, the most appropriate institute to launch any sort of development activity is ASC, Sanasa, or Samurdhi office.With the light of these exercises, now the funding agency is activating in Bambaranda village by constructing the irrigation canals and also the estuary. Moreover, the implementation was carried out under the supervision of ASC with efficient participation of villagers. In fact, the PRA has given the correct path that would direct towards sustainable development with community participation

Emergence of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) Technique as a Strategy towards Sustainable Development: A Sri Lankan Experience

In this millennium all the development activities are mostly focused on sustainable development, i.e. the development which fulfils the requirements of the present without disturbing the utilization of future generation. Basically, the sustainable development deals with environmental, social, and economical initiations. In relation to these three objectives, community participation plays a key role as an effective strategy for sustainable development. Among the numerous types of participation, Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) technique is the most relevant effective method to receive the participation. Because, it has been strengthen by bottom up approach, well defined objectives, practicable solutions, and remedies. Hence, the out come of such an event is most productive rather than a top bottom approach techniques. In fact, a PRA was practiced to develop a strategic plan for tsunami affected village – Bambaranda east, in southern province of Sri Lanka. PRA sessions were carried out during February, 2007 by the Department of Agric. Economics of Ruhuna University, Sri Lanka in collaboration with Japanese Green Resource Agency, Japan. Participatory mapping, venn diagram, matrix ranking, preference ranking, and pair - wise ranking were demonstrated to gather information from the community. The tsunami affected area, including the paddy fields, four irrigation canals were shown by the group with the help of the participatory map. Preference ranking was resulted the reconstruction of irrigation canals as the most important rehabilitation activity to recover the livelihood of villagers. Intrusion of sea water into the paddy fields was the main limitation revealed by the pair - wise ranking. The second limitation marked as unavailability of enough fertilizer and the dilapidated irrigation canals was the third that has to be solved. Matrix ranking was employed to identify the most facilitated sectors by the government and other institutes in order to detect the areas which need to pay further attention. By that, the community realized that the rehabilitation of irrigation canal is the least benefited area where any development activity should be addressed in order to up grade their livelihood. Finally, a venn diagram was executed to identify the service providing entities in the community. It explored the Agrarian Service Center (ASC) as the most important service providing institute which keeps a close relationship with the community. The second and third places were acquired by Sanasa and Samurdhi office. Therefore, the most appropriate institute to launch any sort of development activity is ASC, Sanasa, or Samurdhi office. With the light of these exercises, now the funding agency is activating in Bambaranda village by constructing the irrigation canals and also the estuary. Moreover, the implementation was carried out under the supervision of ASC with efficient participation of villagers. In fact, the PRA has given the correct path that would direct towards sustainable development with community participation

Measures for a sustainable lobster fishery

Lobsters; the crustaceans have four varieties as spiny, slipper, clawed and coral reeflobsters. Althoughall the species have a biological and environmental importance only two varieties; spiny and slipperlobsters have acqu ired the market and attribute for the fishery. Lobster fishery is a paramount componentwhich contributes more than five percent foreign exchange from total fish earnings in Sri Lanka. Thishas an export oriented market with attractive high prices, around 2000 LKRkg-J. The fishery hasexplained as a capture fishery. Therefore, the resource is subjected to over exploitation due tounattainable demand. That means, the fishery is currently in a period of transition era of open accessto a period oflimited access. In fact, it needs a well managed, monitoring plan and functioning rulesand regulations towards a sustainable lobster fishery that would be discussed through this study.The data were collected from five lobster process-ing companies and three purchasing centers inGampaha district. Informal discussions were held with officers at NARA and ministry of fisheries.The sustainability was calculated using surplus yield model (Schaefer, 1954 - 1957)_During 1980s to early 1990s, the only lobster variety exported was spiny lobsters: but with the absenceof enough spiny lobster stock, marketers and buyers tend to demand 51ippcr lobster also, Therefore,the catch also declined up to mid 1990s and slightly increased in a decreasing manner where the catchdrop from 375 mt in 1996 to 247 mt in 2004 with slight variation during the period. So as the Catch PerUnit Effort (CPUE) also decreased from 0.33 percent to 0.09 percent during the period of 1986 -1998. The decreasing is mainly due to the over exploitation. Therefore, new remedies, rules andregulations should be implemented.Habitat enhancement, minimize near shore pollution, usage of appropriate gears. conduct larvalsettlement and lobster fattening programmes, and facilitate training, extension work cum awarenessprogrammes are some suggestions that could be implemented. Also the primary regulations on lobsterfishery should be implemented with restrictions on the fishing efforts (traps) and a quota system. Thecalculated yield levels permit to harvest only within the range of359 mt - 388 mt annually.

Chemical composition and in vitro ruminal fermentation of common tree forages in the semi-arid rangelands of Swaziland

Browse plants play an important role in providing feed for livestock in semi-arid rangelands of Africa. Chemical composition and in vitro ruminal fermentation of leaves collected from Acacia burkei, Acacia tortilis, Acacia nilotica, Dichrostachys cinerea and Ehretia obtusifolia in communal grazing lands in the lowveld of Swaziland is presented. Leaves were collected from trees located on two soil types (i.e., lithosol and vertisol) in the communal land but it had no effect on the chemical composition of tree leaves. The NDFom and ADFom content were highest in D. cinerea and A. burkei and lowest in E. obtusifolia and A. nilotica. Crude protein (CP) contents ranged between 108 g/kg and 122 g/kg DM. D. cinerea had the highest Ca and Mg content, while A. tortilis had the lowest. There were marked variations in K level amongst browse species, with A. tortilis (9.1 g/kg DM) having the highest value. The P, Zn and Fe did not differ between browse species. Soil type and tree species interaction impacted in vitro fermentation parameters. Extent of fermentation, as measured by 48 h cumulative gas production, and organic matter degradability was highest in E. obtusifolia leaves and lowest in D. cinerea leaves within soil type. Fermentation efficiency, as measured by partitioning factors, was highest in A. nilotica leaves. Leaves of E. obtusifolia could be a valuable supplementary feedstuff for ruminant livestock due to its in vitro fermentation characteristics as well as low fibre and moderate CP levels. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved