The original motivation to start the now Eotulelo Farmer Field School Group (Eotulelo FFS Group) in Likamba Village was from experiences in the next village (Ngorbob Village) where the Regional Land Management Unit (RELMA) had in 1997 started working with the community on soil and water conservation. RELMA had at the very start facilitated a problem analysis exercise through which the villages prioritised contours and agroforestry as the key action points. This was to enable the village respond to problems, which the villages listed as the:
- alarming rate of destruction of the environment by soil erosion. The area’s soils are fragile and highly susceptible to both wind and water erosion.
- poor farming practices, which the community noted as contributing to environmental destruction more than giving them yield rewards.
At the centre of these issues was the raising poverty, which the community noted was critically worsening with increasing difficulties to meet own food needs through the year and the general inability to pay for social services such as school fees and medicines.
The RELMA initiative in Ngorbob Village involved 30 to 35 households some of who came from neighbouring villages including Likamba village. However, efforts to apply the learnt practices, i.e. contours and planting of agroforestry trees, were continually frustrated as the contours or tress got destroyed by deliberately by neighbours (planted trees were up-rooted by unknown farmers to discourage their efforts) or livestock (usually grazing at night). In response, to this problem, the involved villages from Likamba village decided to form they own new group.
The Eotulelo Farmer Field School of the Likamba Village started in 2001 as a self-help community based organization. It was at the time a local initiative by a small number of villages coming together to explore ways they can collectively take up to address some problems, which affected them as a village, including an immediate one being destruction of the tree and contours efforts. The main local authority that could help deal with this problem was the Village Government, hence the need to organize themselves at village level.
The new Likamba group started with 20 household members. Their initial objectives were:
- Involve themselves in collective activities including soil erosion control, protection of environment (reduction of gullies), perform other income generating activities hence increase their income.
- To improve traditional agriculture so as to increase yield per unit area.
In 2002 the group was expanding and interacting with other external organizations on development issues. In this year, i.e. 2002, the group was also formally registered with the Government Registrar of Societies.
In 2004 the group from interactions with the Selian Agriculture Research Institute (SARI) got involved with the German-FAO supported Conservation Agriculture for Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development and reorganised itself into the Eotulelo FFS Group.
