Farmer Field School for extension workers

Walter de Oliveira and Dragan Terzic

Farmer Field School for extension workers

Manual prepared with contribution from the Agricultural Extension Division of the Ministry of Agriculture Forestry and Food Security of Sierra Leone

Year of publication 2013

Author Walter de Oliveira and Dragan Terzic

Product type Book (stand-alone)

Edition 1

Full item page

Synopsis (short abstract) With the purpose of helping smallholder farmers in building knowledge and skills and making their farms more profitable, the Farm Field School (FFS) approach have been applied in Sierra Leone for over ten years. FAO and MAFFS have cooperated in the implemented the FFS approach for farmers based on an innovative, participatory and interactive learning approach. As a result, smallholder farmers are learning to investigate and acquiring skills for production technologies and marketing t echniques. This guide is meant for those involved in facilitating the continuation of the learning process for farmers graduated in FFS, grouped in FBOs and managing ABCs. The tools and principles provided here improve planning and analyses of field studies and prepare trainers to facilitate scientific method to farmers. Farmers are and will be a driving force for community development in Sierra Leone. In the FFS, farmers learn about the basic principles and processes in their crop e cosystem. They do simple studies, compare treatments, and learn through their own observations. They learn to ask and answer questions by finding out themselves. However, experience has shown that FFS graduates often require follow-up training to develop their newly acquired knowledge and skills according to the local circumstances. The innovation process associated with the use of modern cultivation techniques (sowing, fertilizers, etc.) need to enter the “confirmation phase stage” where farmers can clearly recognize the benefits of using the innovation. Once the confirmation stage is in place, the farmers will be able to integrate the innovation into the routine farming practices and promote the innovation to other farmers in the village.

Language English

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The Smallholder Commercialization Program (SCP) in Sierra Leone aims to empower rural communities to increase their food security and income on a sustainable basis. The evaluation covered FAO’s contribution to the SCP between 2012 and 2018. FAO’s contribution focused on intensifying production through the implementation of farmer field schools (FFSs), improving commercialisation by supporting the agricultural business centres (ABCs) and enhancing technical capacity of district agricultural offices and the SCP/Global Agriculture and Food Security Programme (GAFSP) Programme Management Unit at central level. The FFS approach was successful in transferring knowledge to farmers and national ownership of the approach is strong. Whilst the ABCs model is highly relevant to the Sierra Leone context and has proven to be effective, support is still required in order for it to become sustainable. In particular, there is a need to further strengthen their governance structure and marketing and business approach, and to increase their access to financial services. The model of combined support to ABCs, FFSs and farmer-based organisations (FBOs) has been recognized as effective for delivering extension services and supporting smallholder commercialisation in Sierra Leone and adopted by other development partners.
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This manual is intended to facilitate a learning process which will arm field level fishery extension officers with knowledge and skills to assist fisherfolk communities in their efforts to collectively address their needs and problems. It is designed to be used in two ways: Firstly, as a trainer’s manual: the document begins with participatory rapid rural analysis to understand the status and dynamics of communities. moves on to needs analysis and identification. problem analysis. generating solution option, planning activities, group formation and management, savings and credit management and finally project planning, implementation and management. It also includes training approaches and tips and provides examples of work that results from putting the training into praxis. Secondly, for motivated and commited field workers, the manual could provide a self-instruction aid which helps them to think through and put various approaches into practise. The approach is aimed at addressi ng the needs of the whole fishing community either directly through action or indirectly through facilitating action by other agencies and workers.
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Forestry and agroforestry education and extension programmes for forest and farm communities have not kept up with needs in many places. However, the success of achieving international sustainability goals and implementing global commitments with respect to sustainable production, halting land degradation, ecosystem restoration and climate change mitigation is contingent on having capacity in place at local levels, or building it, across a large part of the world’s rural lands. This publication reviews the current and potential application of farmer field schools (FFS) to strengthen the capacities and skills of smallholders and family framers in sustainable forestry and agriculture production. From 2020 to 2021, FAO conducted a stocktaking study to identify opportunities, challenges and lessons learned in the application of the Farmer Field Schools (FFS) approach on forestry and agroforestry. Through the review of over 400 documents (peer-reviewed and grey literature), 36 in-depth key informant interviews and a stakeholder workshop, this stocktaking identified twenty-one majors FFS programmes in forestry and agroforestry, with over 200 000 graduates distributed across every region of the Global South. Three decades of FFS experience on forestry, particularly agroforestry, has taken place in multiple geographic, environmental, and social contexts – from arid and semi-arid savannahs to high rainfall mountain environments. This experience represents a diverse, well-tested, decentralized and, locally situated knowledge base on which to build future programmes aiming at strengthening farmers and forest dwellers’ capacity to create sustainable agricultural systems that include trees and perennial crops. This stocktaking argues that though enhanced understanding of agro-ecological dynamics and farmer-led experimentation, the FFS can enable farmers across the globe to sustain or improve productivity while reducing their dependence on externally based inputs. Forestry and agroforestry applications promise to enhance the environmental integrity and socio-economic impacts of FFS, mainly by increasing the presence of perennials in production systems, useful for stabilizing food security and strengthening on-farm ecosystem services.