FAO.org

More than half of the world’s cotton is produced by Asian farmers, the majority of them small landholders with plot sizes of less than one-half hectare. Within Asia, cotton production is diverse and this diversity manifests itself among the countries participating in the FAO-EU Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Programme for [...]

The International Potato Center used the farmer field school (FFS) model in several of its research and development activities on potato and sweet potato integrated pest, disease and crop management as a platform for participatory research (PR) and/or farmer learning. Four approaches are roughly distinguished based on how the FFS [...]

In East Africa, FFS are being used to address several sustainable livelihood aspects with integrated production and pest management (IPPM) as the entry point. The effectiveness of the FFS as a vehicle for achieving the goals hinges on their fiscal sustainability by the communities and local governments. In this regards, [...]

La efectividad de las Escuelas de Campo de Agricultores depende, con frecuencia, de su sostenibilidad financiera. Este artículo echa una mirada a las diferentes innovaciones para lograr la sostenibilidad financiera de las ECAs, que fueron desarrolladas por el Proyecto Piloto Sub-Regional del África Oriental en las Escuelas de Campo de [...]

The farmer field school (FFS) is a season long training of farmers involving participatory activities, hands-on analysis and decision making. Because it requires significant investments in time, trainers and other facilities, the approach can be an expensive way of diffusing new science-based knowledge and other information to farmers. However, if [...]

The Farmer Field School (FFS) experiential learning and selfhelp development approach has become very successful in Southeast Asia in improving irrigated rice production, even beyond Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for which it was initially designed (see LEISA Magazine Vol 17, No 3, pp 18-20). The approach is now also being used [...]