Manual - Participatory rapid diagnosis and action ... - FAO.org

PRDA Manual 161Most training sessions and discussions were attended by both trainers. Theirpresence is needed at the sessions to focus simultaneously on:• Analytical skills and expertise, such as capacity to draw conclusionsfrom data, quality and reliability of the diagnosis, relevance andfeasibility of the action plan.• Participants’ attitudes towards farmers and colleagues during fieldworkand their skills in using the PRA tools.Selected irrigation schemesPRDA targets primarily group-based irrigation schemes where farmers arein charge of operation and maintenance. The size of a scheme is not a majorcriterium, but we recommended to keep it below 1 000 ha to have significantresults in a short period of time. In Kenya, PRDA was also conducted onclusters of small individual irrigated farms and on the 6 000 ha MweaIrrigation Scheme.For practical reasons, we recommend to select one scheme close to thetraining venue in order not to waste time in organizing field exercises duringtraining sessions. Another option is to rotate training venues for each sessionto carry out field exercises on several selected schemes.Partner organizations selected 19 pilot irrigation schemes - nine in Ethiopiaand ten in Kenya - to apply PRDA methodology and tools during training. Alist of selected schemes is given on the following tables C1 and C2.