FARMER FIELD SCHOOLS

Godrick S Khisa

Executive Summary In any company, program, or activity to be undertaken, there is a need for all key players to gain a common vision and have relevant technical tools in place for the tasks at hand. In the private sector, studies show that up to one year of close apprentice like training is used when establishing new offices or factories. The case of agricultural programs is not significantly different. Farmer Field Schools represent a significant step forward in agricultural education and extension. Traditional top-down technology transfer systems have a role in some aspects of agriculture development, but human capacity building required for creation of independent commercialized farmers and farmer organizations needs new approaches. Farmer field schools still provide specific technical skills but also organizational skills and practice, analytical skills and practice, and basic group assets such as trust and confidence required for joint enterprises. Training of trainers is a cost-effective way to introduce new approaches that require new skills to trainers, facilitators and institution but leads to a common vision and common methodology for moving into new areas of extension and education. The vision inherent in farmer field schools is that trainers work along side farmers as advisors and facilitators, encouraging independence, analysis and organization. The farmer field school methods promote exploration, discovery and adaptation under local conditions. The right way means not only building on good science and technological methods, but also fitting into local ecological, social, economic and historical contexts. Finding the right way means that all stakeholders need to participate and gain ownership of the process. A Farmers Field School can be described as a community-based practically oriented field study program, involving a group of farmers, facilitated by extension staff (public or private) or, increasingly, by other farmers. The FFS provides an opportunity for farmers to learn together and test and adapt practices, using practical, hands on methods of discovery learning that emphasise observation, discussion, analysis, and collective decision making. Discussion and analysis are important ways to combine local indigenous knowledge with new concepts and bring both into decision-making. The process aims to build self-confidence, encourage group control of the process, and improve group and community skills. Experience from various FFS projects in Kenya and elsewhere, have shown that the participatory training and extension through FFSs that emphasise farmer learning and experimentation can indeed have a significant impact in relation to both technical innovation development and farmer empowerment.

The aim of the FFS is to build the capacity of farmers themselves to analyse their production systems, identify problems, test possible solutions and eventually adopt the practices most suitable to their farming system. The knowledge acquired during the learning process enables farmers to adapt their existing technologies to be more productive, profitable, and responsive to changing conditions, or to test and adopt new technologies. The training in FFS seeks to assist farmers in developing their ability to make critical and informed decisions that will render their crop production systems more productive, profitable and sustainable. In general, Farmer Field Schools (FFS) consist of groups of people with a common interest, who get together on a regular basis to study the how and why of a particular topic. The topics covered can vary considerably - from IPM, organic agriculture, animal husbandry, and soil husbandry, to income generating activities such as handicrafts. The FFS, however, are particularly adapted to field studies, where specific hands-on management skills and conceptual understanding (based on non-formal adult education principles) is required. The central characteristics of FFS include: hands-on training methods in which farmers test management methods for themselves and learn concepts directly; flexible, non-lecture field study using a group field that allows the field to be the teacher; strong emphasis on observation, analysis, discussion and debate, which allows new ecological concepts to be combined with local knowledge; the use of a technically competent facilitator who leads group activities, but is not seen as the all-knowing source of the right information; a focus on farmers becoming experts and farmer facilitators in their own communities. A typical FFS lasts for one to two seasons and is timed to coincide with the regular cropping season. A group of 20 to 30 farmers sets up a group study field to observe the study enterprise (crop or livestock etc) of their choice. The group is responsible for the care and maintenance of the study enterprise (For crops, covers all aspects of the cropping cycle, from soil preparation, through planting, weed control, pest and disease control, harvesting, post-storage to marketing of produce). Groups meet weekly for annual crops and monthly for perennial crops. During each meeting, the farmers, together with their facilitator, make structured observations of their study enterprise and analyse the situation using an agro-ecosystem analysis method. Group discussion follows and a consensus on required management is reached. During this process, farmers make drawings and

give their own views to reinforce learning. Because the problems and decisions being studied overlap with similar issues in the participants own fields, there is a strong learning readiness motivation. In addition to the field analysis, which takes two to three hours, two special topics are covered each week. One topic deals with group dynamics, to strengthen the groups team-building and organizing skills. The other is a concept-based activity of the farmers choice, usually a special study on a specific pest or disease, a discussion on varieties that grow well in the community or the preparation of other activities such as rat-management schemes. The special topics usually take one hour, so the entire FFS session lasts for four to five hours. In Kenya the FFS approach was first introduced in 1995 in Western Kenya, and is now widely applied in the country and is used in a broad range of enterprises including crop, horticulture, livestock production, soil management, savings and credit, marketing etc. Currently there are over 5000 FFSs that have been implemented in Kenya with over 150, 000 farmers under the coordination and funding of various agencies. After FFS graduation the farmers have gone ahead and formed the FFS Networks. These networks are democratic organisations, which are providing a voice to the needs of farmers for agricultural service from the government, NGO and others. They are increasingly being used by the farmers to link them to the markets, provide market information, information on new technologies, input supply, organising study tours to research institutions and linking farmers to credit institutions. The networks are also representing the views of relatively poor small-scale farmers in public discussions such as those held during the PRSP process. FFS experience show strong empowerment impacts at community and district level, demonstrated through strong and cohesive FFS Networks and associations pushing on marketing and policy issues. These FFS networks have proved to emerge without external support and have considerable potential in acting as a platform for community based initiatives/activities.