Mr Jianhua Chen
Vice President Central Agricultural
Broadcasting and Television School (CABTS)
Ministry of
Agriculture
Beijing, China
Assoc Prof Chongping Huang
Director of "Farmer Green
Certification" Office
Zhejiang Agricultural University
Zhejiang, China
More than 900 million of China's estimated population of 1.2 billion inhabitants live in rural areas. Although China is a vast territory, its per capita resource is lower than one-fourth of the world's average. Despite the fact that China has only seven percent of the world's farmland, it has succeeded in feeding 22 percent of the world's population. Due to the high pressure of human demands on natural resources, the relationship between the environment-agriculture-population system in China is very fragile. The natural environment resource is the primary pre-condition for agricultural development and farmers' subsistence. Thus, if good environmental conservation practices are not followed, severe disastrous outcomes may result. The policy on environmental protection in China is very important and the need to develop an environment conservation education programme is evident.
China stretches about 5 500 km from north to south and 5 000 km from east to west, covering nine sub-temperature zones and four rainfall belts. The varieties of different agricultural regions and rural industrial development activities in each region have complicated the environmental problems in China. The country, however, will continue to rely on its own agricultural sector development to meet the rapidly increasing demands for agricultural products. The extension of new agricultural scientific technologies on the protection of agricultural and natural resources and population and health are incorporated as key environmental policies. Farmers' training through distance learning/education and extension programmes are mandated to disseminate such knowledge and skills so that the farmers can implement the country's policies on environment and natural resource conservation.
Due to the importance of agricultural development in China's national economy, it is necessary to recognize environmental problems and undertake countermeasures to promote sustainable agricultural development.
The environmental problems in China vary greatly in different regions of the country. For example, the northwestern region of the country, Xinjiang and Gansu provinces (one of the poorest regions in natural resources), is characterized by a dry climate, the vast unusable Gobi desert, rolling sandy hills and arid land. Relying on glacial water from the mountains, the oasis in this region has recently become an important cotton production area. The core environmental problems here are desertification of grassland and salination of farmland. The countermeasures involve planting and protecting trees and grasslands. To the east of these provinces is the famous yellow plateau land, which is a transition temperate belt of semi-dry and semi-moist conditions. This has been caused by a long period of vegetation destruction and low annual precipitation (400-600 mm) which is usually concentrated in a few rain storms. Soil erosion is very severe with a rate of 2 000-2 500 tonnes/sq. km. The silt in the Yellow River mainly comes from this area. The rural areas are characterized by low agricultural productivity and poor economic conditions. Many people still do not produce enough to feed themselves. The key environmental conservation method is to introduce integrated watershed management to control erosion.
North of the Great Wall is the Mango Plateau, also a transition belt of the northeast plain which is on a higher elevation than the southeast and northwest. The climate in this region is characterized by drought, low rainfall and windstorms. The loss of top soil is due to wind erosion and desertification. However, the rich grassland here is also one of the main pastoral areas in China. The primary measure of environmental conservation is to enhance the quality of grassland management and to develop a better network of trees and/or grassland.
The area from the Great Wall to the south of the Huaihe River is the main grain production belt of China. The main environmental problems include the relative shortage of water resources, salination of farmland, wind erosion, and low soil fertility. The important environmental conservation measures are to develop water conservation techniques, build farmland shelter networks, improve the salination and control flood and drought.
The southwest of China is very mountainous. This area is characterized by small farms, low land productivity, poverty, severe water and soil erosion and high annual rainfall. The main countermeasures include forest protection, water and soil conservation and terrace construction.
The Tibet and Qinghai autonomous regions are characterized by high elevation and low temperature. There are special environmental problems here which need further study.
The east, central and south of China refer to the areas located in the middle and lower basin of the Yangtse River. This is the golden region of China's economy but it also has very complex environmental problems. As this is a very important region, there is an urgency to introduce and promote EET to promote environmental protection.
The farming system here follows a practice of double-cropping of rice or rice-barley rotation each year. The high grain yield of 12 to 15 tonnes/ha is attributable to high chemical inputs. This region uses one of the highest amount of chemical inputs in China. It is estimated that the soil absorbs not more than 30 percent of the applied chemicals and the rest flows through the underground water system. This has resulted in eutrification and the flourishing growth of water plants in the rivers and lakes which consequently impair water transportation and inland fisheries. This situation is also accentuated by the overuse of chemical pesticides, germicides and weedicides.
Besides the pollution caused by agricultural practices, more severe environmental pollution comes from rural industries. In the southeast coastal areas, large and small factories are
scattered in almost every village. Due to poor pollution treatment facilities and the lack of environmental consciousness among factory managers, environment pollution has become very serious. This is illustrated in the case where farmers in some villages are afraid of eating the rice and wheat they produce. Instead they sell their own grains and buy rice from somebody else in the same market. In some other towns and villages the residents will not drink water from the tap but instead fetch or buy spring water from the hill gorges. Ironically, this has also resulted in a profitable enterprise in the sale of pure water.
In China, the system of management on environmental issues is divided into two components. At the national, provincial and county levels, the environment protection bureaus are responsible for industry-associated pollution. The MOA, provincial and county agricultural bureaus are responsible for rural environment conservation as well as environment problems caused by agriculture production activities. The DE/MOA is responsible for both agricultural education management and environment protection education.
Specifically, the responsibilities of DE/MOA include agricultural education in university and/or college level, secondary school level, and farmers' level. The environment at the conservation education in rural areas of China is mainly carried out by means of the Farmers' Green Certificate Training (FGCT) and the Central Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School (CABTS) programmes.
The FGCT programme is designed for farmers who have completed the junior middle school education level. In order to obtain the FGCT they are required to study 300 lesson hours of the FGCT courses within a year. By the year 2000, about 10 million farmers will have been trained and qualified for the FGCT.
The CABTS training is a typical distance learning/education programme with a system of networks covering the whole country. As of 1997, the CABTS at the national level is administratively responsible for 37 province-level schools, 337 prefecture- or city-level schools, 2 239 county-level schools, and 17 000 township-level study groups. The hierarchical arrangement constitutes a five-level (central, provincial, prefecture/city, county and township) distance education system. Currently there is a total of approximately 920 000 students enrolled at various levels and types of training (including the FGCT trainees and the self-study diploma students).
In considering the key roles of Chinese farmers in rural environmental protection, the DE/MOA and the Department of Energy and Environment Protection, DEEP/MOA tried to review the approaches and problems of environment education programmes targeted towards the farmers. It appeared that the main difficulties encountered were the lack of appropriate training materials on environment education and the systematic approach and methods of training. In November 1994, with the assistance of the FAO, the DE/MOA undertook a project on environment education targeted to train farmers and extension workers, especially those training in the FGCT programme. The project was to develop an EETM which would be used in the training programme.
Based on the agreement between DE/MOA and FAO, a national EET advisory committee was established. The coordinator of the committee, Mr Chen Jianhua, was the Vice President of CABTS.
Under the guidance of this committee, the CABTS cooperated with the Farmers' Education Division of DE/MOA (the agency responsible for the FGCT programme) to implement EET development activities in China.
The overall goal of the EET was to improve the basic knowledge of the extension worker, trainers and trainees so that they could better understand the relationships between environment conservation and farmers' agricultural production activities. It was also to develop their skills to be able to observe, analyse and describe the types of environmental problems as well as determine/assess the impacts of environmental pollution. It was also to enhance farmers' interest and attitude in participating in rural environment conservation activities.
The specific training objectives of the EET programme are to enable the trainees to:
Based on the identified needs of China's rural development programme and the agreement between DE/MOA and FAO, the implementation of the farmers' EET through the CABTS distance education programme, the implementation of EET activities have progressed rapidly since 1995.
Through the cooperation of FAO and other participating institutions, the EET programme went very well. As a consequence, DE/MOA acquired many of benefits and lessons learned from this exercise. These may be summarized as follows:
As a consequence of these EETM development activities which have a long term impact on human resource development, the following Table 1 shows the immediate outputs that were accomplished.
Table 1: Implementation of EET programmes in China,
1995-1997
Institutional strategy
The principal strategy used in the implementation of the EETM development was to involve various institutions including the government, research, training and the universities. The national project directors were Associate Professor Li Jinyi (Deputy Director-General, DE/MOA), and Mr Chen Jianhua (Vice President, CABTS). The project's research group members comprised government officials from DE/MOA, Department of International Cooperation (DIC)/MOA and DEPE/MOA, as well as experts and resource persons from CABTS, Agro-Ecology Institute (AEI), Zhejiang Agricultural University (ZAU), College of Zhejiang Agricultural Managerial Cadres and the CIAD, CAU, formerly called Beijing Agricultural University. The excellent coordination between these institutions facilitated the integration of experiences and development of the module through the implementation of the EETM project into the FGCT, a national programme approved by the State Council.
The experiences gained and the module developed also provided a technical and institutional guarantee for the implementation of a regular environment education programme in the vast rural areas. DE/MOA also selected several counties to field test the EETM with the FGCT trainees who were required to pass the environment education component. During the implementation of the project, special attention was focused on farmers' participation, especially female farmers. The module was especially adapted to fit farmers' needs; this was necessary to ensure that the EETM could be used for the rural areas in the future.
Based on the agreement between DE/MOA and AEI-ZAU, the TNA was conducted in two locations, Deqing county and the suburban area of Jinhua City in Zhejiang Province. This activity was carried out from April to June, 1995. The two sites, considered to be developed areas, reflect the environmental situation in the southeastern coastal areas of China. The TNA used the participatory approach which involved interviews with key rural informants to obtain the general information about local area and opinions on various aspects of EET. The results of the TNA were then discussed with the FGCT officials from township and county government. Finally, the TNA results were verified with farmer groups using the focus group interview technique to check the acceptability of the training contents.
The TNA results indicated that air and water pollution were most severe in these two locations. It was determined that agricultural chemicals were the main sources of pollution. Farmers and agricultural technicians were eager to know more about air and water pollution as well as to be able to describe, analyse and diagnose the type(s) of pollution. It was necessary to understand the impacts of pollution on agricultural production and their livelihood and how to reduce the harmful influences of pollution on human health and to protect their rights legally.
The TNA results are shown in the following Tables 2 and 3:
Table 2: Participatory TNA of environmental problems (28 June 1995)
Sources |
F1 |
F2 |
F3 |
F4 |
F5 |
F6 |
F7 |
F8 |
Total |
Water pollution |
7 |
8 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
7 |
8 |
7 |
58B |
Air pollution |
8 |
7 |
8 |
8 |
7 |
8 |
7 |
8 |
61A |
Waste residue |
3 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
5 |
4 |
24F |
Dirt pollution |
5 |
6 |
5 |
4 |
5 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
30E |
Eutrification |
4 |
1 |
4 |
1 |
3 |
3 |
2 |
3 |
21G |
Pesticide pollution |
6 |
5 |
7 |
6 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
5 |
44C |
Soil erosion |
1 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
13H |
Reduction |
2 |
4 |
3 |
5 |
2 |
6 |
4 |
6 |
32D |
Key: F= Farmer group
The alphabets under the "Total" column denote
priority ranking of training needs.
Table 3: Farmers' needs on aspects of environmental training
Pollution aspects |
F1 |
F2 |
F3 |
F4 |
F5 |
F6 |
F7 |
F8 |
Total |
E.P./Human health |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
8A |
E.P./Agro-production |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
11B |
E. Protection |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
13D |
E. Composition |
2 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
13D |
E. Protection laws |
1 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
12C |
E.P. Identification |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
13D |
E.P./Harm on crops |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
3 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
13D |
Countermeasures |
3 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
1 |
12C |
Eco-agriculture |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
2 |
3 |
13D |
Key: F= Farmer group
The alphabets under
the "Total" column denote priority ranking of training needs.
In order to ensure the utilization of EETM in the FGCT programme, the involvement of the concerned agencies was important. Hence, the members of the module writing team (MWT) were selected from among the FGCT officials and agricultural subject matter specialists. This team included the following:
Mr Yuan Xuezhi - DE/MOA
Mr Chen Weizhong -
DE/MOA
Mr Tong Libo - Bureau of Agriculture, Zhejiang Provincial Government
(BA/ZPG)
Mr Bian Zhuping - Agricultural Bureau of Deqing County
Government
Prof Wang Zhaoqian - AEI-ZAU
Assoc Prof Huang Chongping - AEI-ZAU
In addition, Prof Dr Li Xiaoyun from CIAD-CAU, curriculum development specialist and Professors Yi Jinyan and Wu Fangzheng, environment specialists from the College of Environment Science (CES) and College of Natural Resource Protection (CNRP) of ZAU were also invited as consultants to the project.
The MWT team reviewed the available agricultural environment conservation training materials and discussed the development process of EETM. The results showed that environment protection in China was an urgent task considering the rapid development of rural industry and overuse of chemicals in agricultural production over the years. Farmers could play a very important role in rural environment conservation since they were both participants and beneficiaries of the conservation. In view of the farmers' low literacy level and limited knowledge on environment protection, it was important to select appropriate training materials and methods to conduct EET. The EETM for extension workers in Indonesia developed by the AAET Indonesia under the sponsorship of FAO was an invaluable reference material, especially for the training of agricultural and managerial cadres, technical extension workers as well as farmers in China. Most important however was a consensus reached to prepare a special EETM material for the FGCT programme.
To ensure a systematic development of EETM in China, DE/MOA with support from FAO invited Dr Chye-Hean Teoh to train the core members of the MWT from 5 to 15 June 1995 in Beijing. At the conclusion of the training the MWT was able to prepare the outline and finalize the structure of the module. Based on TNA results and the FGCT requirements, the module was divided into four units of instruction. Each unit consisted of three to seven activities with a total of 17 activities in the module. The contents of these activities focused on increasing trainers' and trainees' knowledge about environment protection, improving their skills in recognizing and solving environmental problems and changing their attitudes towards the environment.
On completion of the first draft outline of EETM, officials of DE/MOA reviewed the contents of the module to ensure that they reflected the agreement between DE/MOA and FAO. The output of this review was then subjected to a technical review in which 12 FGCT trainers participated and trainees. Based on this review, the prototype first draft of EETM was prepared and 20 copies of this document were produced. Then the MWT organized a two-day workshop on 11and 12 August 1995 to discuss the contents in detail. Participants in this workshop were agricultural subject matter specialists from agricultural bureaus of Zhejiang Province, Deqing County and Jinhua City and the CES/CNRP-ZAU. These professional and technical resource persons felt that the contents and analysis about resource protection and environmental pollution from an agricultural production perspective were not sufficient. The MWT then further revised the module by incorporating the suggestions and recommendations of these resource persons. Thus, the second draft EETM was prepared.
The officials of the FGCT programme of BA/ZPG then organized a training course from 10 to 12 September 1995 for 45 FGCT trainers from various counties in Zhejiang Province, using the EETM developed. Through this training the FGCT officials and trainers became more familiar with the training contents of all the activities in the module. The seven trainers from Jinhua City and Deqing County who had been trained were then designated to conduct training using EETM in their classes.
The EETM content validation seminar (CVS) was held in the College of Agricultural Managerial Cadres of Zhejiang Agricultural University from 20 to 22 September 1995. A total of 23 agricultural management and technical personnel attended the seminar. The participants fully supported and affirmed the importance of the EETM project. They felt that the structure of the written teaching materials was reasonable and addressed their urgent request concerning the audio-visual teaching materials. They had hoped that the EETM project would be replicated in their counties and cities. Following the CVS, seven trainers conducted another training course from October 15 to 17 1995 in Jinhua City and Deqing County, Zhejiang Province. During this training, the trainers conducted pre- and post-tests and wrote evaluation reports for all the activities of the course. Another training course was also conducted from 25 to 26 October 1995 with the cooperation of AEI-ZAU and the government of Deqing County for 24 townships agricultural technicians. The AEI-ZAU conducted overall evaluations on all these courses.
The implementation of the above activities has improved the quality of EETM developed by the project. Table 4 summarizes the activities and the achievements:
Table 4: The EETM development process
The EETM is divided into four parts: preface, acknowledgements, trainers' guide and module structure. The main contents of the module consist of a 21-page outline/description and 126 pages of reading materials for the trainees.
The preface explained the rationale and significance of developing EETM and the processes and activities involved for implementation by the FGCT and CABTS programmes. The needs and methods of disseminating environment protection knowledge and skills to the farming communities by the agricultural extension workers were also highlighted.
The initiatives and EETM development processes as advocated by FAO and implemented for the FGCT and CABTS programmes were also addressed.
In its acknowledgements, special thanks were accorded to the following: the FAO Senior Officer, Dr. Ronny Adhikarya; the FAO Curriculum Development Consultant, Dr Chye-Hean Teoh; the key module writers, Professor Wang Zhaoqian and Associate Professor Huang Chongping; participants, trainers and extension workers of CVS and TOT workshop; and the FGCT officials from agriculture bureaus of Zhejiang Province, Jinhua City, and Deqing County, for their invaluable contributions to the development of the EETM for China.
In the trainers' guide section, the key training aims, module structure and training methodology were explained. Guidelines and emphasis were on how to design and conduct the pre-test, post-test and evaluation of training impacts, organization of field work, principles of training, module writing as well as the relationship between units and activities.
The module consists of four units and 17 activities. Each unit contains between three to seven activities. The module can be implemented within 20-22 hours. Each activity is designed to last for one hour but some activities required 2-3 hours.
The module structure and content outline is illustrated in Figure 1 as follows:
To facilitate training activities for the trainers and trainees, the specific training aims and objectives were defined for all the units and activities as illustrated in the following example:
Example: Unit 2
Unit Title: Environmental components and environment protection laws
Aim: To improve the trainees' knowledge on the basic concepts of environment, environmental components, the implications and different categories of environmental problems, the major environmental protection laws, their legal rights as well as develop basic skills and abilities to protect rural environment.
Objectives: On the completion of this unit, the trainees should be able to:
For each of the activities, other detailed information such as specific objectives, training location, duration, contents outline and the conditions for conducting the training are also stated as illustrated in the following example:
Example: Activity 4 (in Unit 3)
Activity title: Local environment pollution diagnosis
Aim: To train the trainees in basic diagnostic survey on polluted sites so that they will be able to collect samples, describe their status in degrees of pollution, identify the sources of the pollution and analyse the pollution trends.
Objectives: On the completion of this activity, the trainees should be able to:
Location: |
A polluted site |
Duration: |
2 hours |
Materials: |
Map of area, pencil and paper, sampling tools |
Methods: |
Group discussions, observations |
Contents and instructions:
The prototype EETM developed through this project was implemented almost immediately upon completion of its final draft. The module was used to conduct training for the following four categories of target beneficiaries:
The officials of the FGCT programme from the agriculture bureau of Zhejiang Province in collaboration with the ZAU organized and conducted the TOT course for 45 teachers and officials from various counties of Zhejiang Province from 10 to 12 September 1995, using the EETM. These trainers came from a variety of backgrounds including agronomy, agricultural engineering, fisheries, animal husbandry, silk cocoon and mulberry production as well as tea production. The TOT focused on the methodology used in the module as well as the more difficult and important contents. Since the duration of training was not adequate to cover all aspects of the participants' needs special guidelines based on local practical situations were also provided. This training also provided special support to the seven trainers from Deqing and Jinhua Counties as they would conduct a similar type of training at the local level.
In response to the demands of rural environment conservation of Zhejiang Province, the Bureau of Agriculture and the Zhejiang Provincial Government trained 40 teachers of the FGCT programme by incorporating the EETM into their regular courses in May 1996. These teachers were required to train other trainees from time to time. In 1997, another 60 teachers of the FGCT programme were trained and five of them had utilized the EETM to train another 168 trainees in the same year.
Based on the agreement between DE/MOA and FAO regarding the implementation schedule, the use of the EETM to incorporate into specialized courses for grassroots level personnel was undertaken by trainers from Deqing county and Jinhua City in 1995. This activity was supervised by Ms Tong Libo from the agriculture bureau of Zhejiang Province and Associate Professor Huang Chongping from AEI-ZAU. These courses trained a total of 198 trainees in the following areas of specialization: agronomy (32), silk and mulberry (36) and tea production (28) from Deqing county and agronomy (30), fruits (34) and agricultural machinery (38) from Jinhua City.
Following the success of this training the EET activities were expanded in 1996 to two other counties. During the year, the numbers trained included the following:
Deqing county: agronomy (32), silk and mulberry
production (28), tea production (20).
Pinghu county: agronomy (46), fisheries
(42).
Jinhua City: agricultural machinery (52), fruit tree production (27),
agronomy (23).
Shanmeng county: fruit tree production (51), animal production (28).
The integration of the EETM into the FGCT programme has expanded to most of the counties in Zhejiang Province and 1 098 trainees had been trained by 1997.
As agricultural extension workers play an important role in dissemination of knowledge and skills on rural environmental conservation, they are usually invited as resource persons to train participants of the FGCT programme. Thus, the agriculture bureau of Zhejiang Province and ZAU took the opportunity to train extension workers using the EETM developed. A total of 60 township level agricultural technicians (36 from Deqing county and 24 from Jinghua City) and 80 directors of the county level agricultural extension centre were trained in 1995 and 1996, respectively. In 1997, another 78 county-level extension workers and 90 township level agricultural technicians from Pinghu, Yuyao and Dongyang counties were trained in separate groups of about 30 each.
The CABTS conducts a typical distance education programme. The use of the EETM for CABTS trainees started in 1996 after TV and radio programmes were developed. The pilot project was undertaken by the Zhejiang Agricultural Broadcasting and Television School (ZABTS) which subsequently trained 102 participants with various backgrounds, including agronomy, rural management and animal production.
From 1997, the CABTS extended the use of the EETM and the training experiences gained on a national basis. There are currently 807 trainees being trained in Shandong, Zhejiang, Anhui and Hunan provinces, using the materials of the EETM.
It has to be appreciated that environment protection is a difficult and long-term task. The training on environment education provided to the farmers can help enhance the recognition of environment conservation on a national scale. Since the FGCT and CABTS trainees are model farmers, it is essential that they possess the knowledge and skills on environment protection as this is one of the main components of environmental activities.
With the rapid development and growth of China's economy, it is inevitable that the rural industries will continue to increase. The large population and continuous increase in the purchasing powers of the people create an ever increasing demand for agricultural products which in turn impose high pressures on environmental resources. It is therefore crucial that all levels of government agencies, especially agriculture and industry-based institutions, strengthen their support for environment education. This is most important if China's EET activities are to be sustained and institutionalized.
As an initial strategy to ensure sustainability and institutionalization of EET activities, it was made a requirement for FGCT and CABTS participants in the pilot provinces and counties to follow the 22-hour course of the EETM in order to be awarded the certificates. With the certificates, the farmers are then eligible to contract farmland, fruit gardens and fish-ponds from the state which must also be supported by the local government support services such as credit and transportation.
Many of the farmers who trained with the EETM programme have also been evaluated. The evaluation results indicated that the training had greatly helped them to recognize environment problems and enabled them to deal with their negative impacts. For example, the FGCT trainees who had been trained under the EET programme knew how to treat fluoride pollution of silk cocoon with lime. In past years, this pollution has resulted in a loss of over 2 million RMB on silk cocoon production. In addition, the FGCT trainees also campaigned to urge the county government to impose stricter requirements in rural factories on such pollution control equipment.
Since there are direct benefits to the farmers on the sustainability and institutionalization of the EET programme in China, it has therefore also facilitated sustainable agriculture and industrial development in China. The contribution of EETM to development is therefore indisputable. However, due to the complex and variety of environmental problems in China, the DE/MOA had to prepare three sets of EET materials for various categories of trainers and trainees. One set of the materials is designed for the seriously polluted areas caused by rural industry. The second set is for the northern region and the third set is for the southern region of the country.
China's EETM development project has achieved its primary objectives and outputs. The DE/MOA will further improve the EET activities to keep up with the demands and pace of China's economic development on environment education and incorporate Chinese characteristics in the EET programmes.
The important immediate task is to consolidate the training experiences of the past two years. As a consequence of the assistance provided by FAO and the participation of many relevant activities (including three international/regional workshops), the DE/MOA officials were able to share the ideas and experiences from other countries and institutions in the EET network. However, many differences still exist in terms of the natural environment, culture, economy, environmental problems, etc. which vary in diverse geographical locations. In this regard, it is necessary to develop and/or adopt several other training modules, to suit each situation. The present EETM focused mainly on the TOT and the agricultural extension workers. Different training modules for training of the FGCT programme and CABTS trainees should be specially developed.
The TOT is very important; it should warrant the compilation of a special textbook for this type of training. Trainers need to be well prepared themselves in order to effectively assume their roles as trainers. For example, it is very difficult for trainers to explain some of the important concepts and contents to their trainees unless they have access to more detailed information on the concepts. Evaluation is an important aspect of training; hence it is necessary to ensure that the trainers know how to conduct the pre-test, post-test as well as follow-up evaluation activities.
Different regions require different types of radio and TV programmes on environment issues. Meeting such a demand is important; hence CABTS undertook to complete five to six different types of programmes in 1997-1998.
The DE/MOA and related agencies in the provincial government need to enhance their support (including financial support) in the management of EET activities in future. The EET action plan for 1998 is presented in Table 5:
Table 5: The EET action plan for 1998
Key: Budget in 100 000 RMB per unit
No. = number of participants/trainees
In reflecting upon the process and activities of the EETM project in the past three years, the institution had been able to acquire new insights of this systematic approach to module development and apply the lessons learned to China's EET programmes. There are four key areas that were found to be most useful and significant in order for the programme to be successful and sustainable.
The traditional training method in China focuses mainly on the lecture approach; hence there is participation and interaction of the trainees. To change this situation, there is now more class discussion and practical field work for the trainees. When farmers encountered environment problems, the trainers would encourage trainees to act as resource persons to help explain environment issues, share knowledge, explain the impacts of environment pollution on the health of villagers, loss of field crops, fishery, poor silk cocoon production, etc. to farmers. This approach helps the trainees change their attitude towards EET and encourages them to put their acquired knowledge and skills into practice immediately.
In order to increase the implementation efficiency and reduce the cost of TOTs, CABTS spent RMB 36 000 to develop TV and radio programmes for EET. Such programmes also help to ensure that that EET will be sustainable in the distance education/learning activities as they help related institutions develop EET targeted towards agricultural extension workers and rural cadres.
The emphasis on TOT is very important in order to ensure the quality of training and appropriate use of the EETM to train various categories of trainees, extension workers and village/farm leaders. According to the original FAO suggestions in the agreement, the duration allocated for the TOT should at least be equal to the duration of the trainee's training. Through the project's experiences, this duration seemed to be quite inadequate; longer duration for the TOT is therefore advocated. Since 1996, the duration for TOT has been extended to one week instead of the original three days. These changes have been made accordingly and documented in the EETM.
In the follow-up evaluation, different evaluation forms are sent to different trainees about three to six months after they have attended the training courses. This evaluation is important to help solicit feedback to improve the training activities. Based on the analysis of the results of follow-up evaluations, improvements were made on several components of the training module and other information gathered on the most effective way to transfer learning. For example, the decisions to produce multimedia TV and radio programmes, extension of the duration of TOT programmes, etc. were based on the outcome of the follow-up evaluation reports.
