Constraint analysis to improve integrated dairy production systems in developing countries: the importance of participatory rural appraisal.

The paper describes the rationale and importance of the approaches and methodologies of Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) to enable constraint analysis, to understand the complexities of farming systems and to improve integrated dairy productivity. Implicit in this objective is Farming Systems Research (FSR), which focused on cropping systems in the 1970's, with the subsequent addition of animal components. The methodology for FSR involves the following sequential components: site selection, site description and characterization (diagnosis), planning of on-farm research, on-farm testing and validation of alternatives, diffusion of results, and impact assessment. PRA is the development of FSR, which involves the active participation of farmers to identify constraints and plan appropriate solutions. In the Coordinated Research Project (CRP), the approach was adapted to 10 different country situations and led to Economic Opportunity Surveys (EOS) and Diagnostic Surveillance Studies (DSS), allowing the planning and implantation of integrated interventions to improve dairy productivity.