Participatory Training and Extension 
in Farmers’ Water Management

CREDITS

CREDIT and ORIGINS

The Guidelines and Manual on the Participatory Training and Extension in Farmers’ Water Management (PT&E-FWM) were developed within the framework of the FAO- Special Programme for Food Security. The participatory training approaches were first applied for training of staff and water users associations under the On-Farm Water Management Training and Development project in Indonesia in the early nineties, integrating concepts of the Farmer Field School (FFS) as introduced under the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programme.

The approach and methodologies were further introduced and tested in a range of FAO technical assistance projects in Laos, Zambia, Ghana, Nepal, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Egypt, Sudan, Sri Lanka, Malawi and others. Learning from the experiences, the methodologies evolved over a time span of almost ten years in a more definite format, as presented in the guidelines and manual.

The Guidelines and Manual on Farmers Water Management were developed under the FAO regular programme of the FAO Land and Water Development Division by a team of staff members devoted to the concepts of participatory training. They include:

Martin Smith, Senior Technical Officer of AGLW, who has initiated the programme, developed the training approach in a range of FAO field projects in water control, and provide the overall guidance to the development of the training materials.

Jaap van de Pol, FAO Soil & Water training consultant, who developed the Farmers Training Manual, its approach and lay-out, and introduced and tested the farmers training modules in a number of field missions to Zambia, Cambodia, Nigeria, Sudan and other countries.

Alice van Keulen, FAO Water management Consultant, provided a major contribution in the composition and formatting of the documents and compilation of the CD-ROM and supporting documents.

Neeltje Kielen, Associate Professional Officer of the Land and Water Development Division, prepared the module on Salinity and Drainage and introduced the training programme in Sri Lanka and Egypt;

Eva Jordans, FAO Gender in Irrigation consultant, introduced the modules in Bangladesh and further contributed to the guidelines and gender training.

Catharine Terwisscha van Scheltinga, provided valuable comments and developed the trainers of trainers curriculum on PT&E for national SPFS staff.

Mr. Nasser Brahimi, consultant in graphic design has provided the inputs for the graphic illustrations included in the guidelines and manual.

Wolfgang Prante , AGL Information Officer, advised and contributed to the composition of the CD-ROM;

Simone Morini, assisted in the lay-out of the CD-ROM and web-based materials.

Acknowledgement is made also to the many field staff who have contributed to the materials and experiences. In particular we like to mention:

• Andries Bosma and Jan de Boef who developed and implemented the Zambia training and extension programme;

Dirk Paulisse and Jeanette Broekhuizen, who developed the training programme in Cambodia;