This paper draws on experiences with several participatory research activities carried out during 2005 and 2006 in the context of an Operational Research Project of All India Coordinated Research Project for Dryland areas carried out at the village Pathliyas situated in Mangarope watershed, Rajasthan, India. Data on the climatic constraints, drought and use of agro-advisory services from 45 households were collected to identify key track indicators for measuring community progress. The yield gap analysis of different crops in the watershed region presented indicated that technology gap existing between the potential and demonstrable yields was not substantial. Thus, it was possible to replicate the results obtained in research experiments in on-farm situation. The technology index varied from 20 to 47% which gave evidence that there was scope for further improvement in the productivity. The adoption of contingency plan for mitigating aberrant weather situation revealed that the adoption of different dryland technologies varied from 10 to 88%. During 2006-07, there was 30 days early onset of monsoon so sowing of maize and groundnut was forbidden based on land topography. Village survey result indicated that out of total cropped area (100 ha), maize and groundnut crops were sown on 35 and 10% of the area until the second week of June. Only 5% of the area was sown with the recommended agro-advisory services. However, the success rate of such farmers was not more than 10%. Thus, for higher sustainability, equality and stability of production, the agro-advisory services must be a vital component of action research and more emphasis should be given to capitalize on them.
