Best Practices > Details
Farmers Field Schools For Improved Water Productivity
30/11/2021 , Amman
Egyptian farmers discussing ideas in Farmer Field School (Fayoum)
©Hans Feijen
With the Sustainable Development Goals, challenging targets have been set for agriculture, food security and conservation of natural resources. Attaining these targets depends to a large extent on the empowerment of rural people as agents of change.
The agricultural sector requires water to produce the food needed to feed the world's growing population, while it is also true the sector needs to improve its water use efficiency in order to meet future water demands from agriculture as
well as other water using sectors. FAO has been conducting various activities to improve the water use efficiency in its Member countries through normative work on issues such as crop water productivity, generating "more crop per drop"; small-scale
cost-effective rainwater harvesting technology; low-cost irrigation methodology and irrigation modernization, including advises on the policy and institutional arrangements for water resources management in developing countries.
Organizing
local farming communities is key and at the field programme, for example, FAO has been implementing Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) for farmers and local people to solve their water and soil problems by themselves. FFS are a popular education and extension
approach worldwide. Such schools use experiential learning and a group approach to facilitate farmers in making decisions, solving problems, and learning new techniques. This gives the ownership and opportunity to farmers to consider better water
management practices and to build their capacity to improve water use efficiency.
Under the framework of the regional project “Implementing the 2030 Agenda for water efficiency/productivity and water sustainability in NENA countries”,
one of the key activities is implementing a series of interventions through FFS to increase water efficiency and productivity.
Farmer Field Schools (FFS) for Best Agricultural Practice for Water Productivity.
Palestine
Palestine suffers from a shortage in available water for irrigation due to the occupation authorities’ control, which is about 85 percent of the groundwater in the West Bank, depriving Palestinians of their historical right to access and use the waters of the Jordan River and restricting the use of floodwater. Knowledge obtained from FFS’s is important for farmers as it will support them in more that proper farming methods, but also the right water practice. After the crop season concluded, a comparison was made between the results using the previous traditional method of farming and the newly introduced method.
Results show that using the traditional methods (in control), 550 kg of crop was extracted from one dunum. However, using the FAO introduced method implemented within the FFS, 2 000 kg was extracted from one dunum, which is almost three times as much. Other than the above mentioned practices, the FFS also taught the women how to pickle snack cucumbers, which supported women in terms of additional household income and took part in reducing losses in the field.
Jordan
In Jordan two FFS’s have been established in 2019, one for peppers and another for okra. The participants of the FFS were around 23 participants for each FFS. The study field for each FFS is around one dunum. After last year’s successful FFS results, the farmers requested to expand the FFS’s to other crops. Therefore, the project has introduced four new FFS’s being implemented in 2020: citrus, potato, grape and eggplant. A total of 132 farmers are participating in the FFS’s, most of them are men with the exception of one woman due to cultural issues.
Tunisia
In Tunisia six FFS’s have been set up in Kairouan and Jendouba with the objective of disseminating good water practices to olive growers in both regions. Furthermore, a training program on good practices is being developed, in partnership with local
organizations.
Mohamed Mouldi: "Seeing as it was not possible to go back to school to learn how to better manage my plot of olive trees, it is the school that came to me "
Mohamed Mouldi, an olive farmer in El Ksour delegation. "We are 15 farmers, in different age groups and experience levels in olive growing. The FFS sessions allowed us to learn from each other, to discuss certain local agricultural practices and their
impact on our fields and to learn new ones. The experts of the Olive Tree Institute presented the scientific knowledge that we then adopted to the local context and to the means of farmers” said M. Mouldi
“
Personally, FAO’s
FFS allowed me to improve my olive production which increased from 7 to 10 kg per tree in a year. In addition, I have reduced the expenses from agricultural inputs and pumping electricity budget. Today, I can say that I know when to irrigate and how
much water the tree needs. I also know how to manage and maintain the drip irrigation system to use water in the best way” he said, with a big smile on his face.
“Beyond the technical aspects, the school have consolidated the
social cohesion in our neighborhood and revived the spirit of intergenerational transmission and exchanges." M. Mouldi added.
Under the regional project, a network of more than thirty FFS dealing with various crops are being implemented in the eight beneficiary countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, Palestine, Jordan, Lebanon and Iran). In addition to the local and
national partners input, the schools also benefit from the support of the team from the University of Cordoba in Spain, bringing in the international expertise and leading the water productivity component. national partners input, the schools also
benefit from the support of the team from the University of Cordoba in Spain, bringing in the international expertise and leading the water productivity component.