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

8 Chapter 2. Overview of ProcedurePerformance Assessment REPORT2C - Constraint rankingDuring the Data Collection and Performance Assessment you will probablyhave identified several constraints. The enormous amount of data must beorganized and presented back to the farmers. You can do this, for example,by presenting your performance assessment to the WUA to see if they agreewith your diagnosis. The community can then move on to the next step ofprioritizing and selecting constraints that they like to tackle.Prioritization of constraints is one of the most important steps of the PRDAbecause it forms the basis for the Action Plan. Therefore, this exercise shouldbe done systematically and with the full participation and agreement of thefarming community. Many constraints faced by farmers may come up duringthe Rapid Diagnosis. However, the perception of main constraints oftenvaries between different people based on their social status, income, gender,geographic position in the irrigation scheme, etc. It is therefore important toidentify the main constraints faced by the different categories of farmers andmales versus females.As it is impossible to tackle all constraints you will have to make a selectionof which ones to focus on. This can best be done on the basis of communityranking of constraints as it is more likely to increase interest and enthusiasmfor identified solutions. However, remain critical in the selection of constraintsas farmers’ opinions are not always right. Criteria for constraint selectionother than community ranking are: the mandate and experience of yourown organization; the complexity of constraints; and, the wish to focus onconstraints of the poorest group of people, etc.If farmers prioritize constraints that are not related to the mandate of the PRDAteam, you can only promise to forward their constraints to other relevantorganizations. Do not try to deal with issues that are not related to irrigation as thismight raise false hopes for farmers.Constraint Identification REPORTConstraint Identification REPORT