The thrust of this research was to determine the magnitude of the training program effectiveness and applicability of the TRD project for village development in agriculture and other rural aspects as perceived by villagers. The project espouses people's participation as a basis for developing training programs;The research was conducted in the 1979 TRD pilot regions in Southern Tanzania. Adult village members from 15 villages comprised the population of the study. Data were collected during July and August 1984 through personal interviews with a three-part questionnaire from 331 randomly selected TRD-trained and non-TRD-trained village residents;The validity and reliability of the interview instrument were established. Descriptive and inferential statistical procedures were used in the data analysis;It was found that: (1) the training program was perceived important and effective in increasing villagers' technical and managerial abilities to conduct village development programs; (2) most of the concepts learned through the training program were applied by participants in village development; however, there were a few concepts which were not applied; (3) five major problems pertaining to the training and implementation of the TRD concepts in villages were identified; (4) the TRD-trained villagers extended the knowledge from the training centers to other members of their villages through demonstrations, discussions, and other informal mechanisms; and (5) women were not adequately involved in the training programs;Based on the findings, it was recommended that: (1) the needs assessment process as a basis for developing training programs be a continuous process so as to make training programs reflect the current felt needs of recipients, and also increase the relevance of training to local conditions; (2) avenues of village access to development facilitating resources be incorporated into the project development process; (3) strategies of including more women in the TRD training programs be developed in order to increase women representation in village development decision making.