How does FFS benefit farmers?
LAST week NAREI in Focus explained what the Farmers Field School (FFS) is and its core principles. It is an innovative, participatory and interactive learning approach that emphasises problem-solving and discovery-based learning.
The method emphasises group observation, discussion, analysis, presentation, and collective decision making and actions. The basic component of FFS is setting up of a Participatory Comparative Experiment (PCE), commonly referred to as Participatory Technology Development (PTD), whereby the farmers put the FFS concept into practice.
This week this column will look at the benefits of FFS. They are:
1. Strengthening observation capability and increasing knowledge ownership through discovery-based learning: FFS does not rely mainly on information and techniques brought by extension agents and transferred to farmers. Instead, it aims to encourage farmers’ systematic observation and informed decision making based on discovery-based learning so that new knowledge and practices are generated by the farmers themselves. This process stimulates ownership of the learning process and ensures local adaptation. The main role of extension workers is to enhance farmers’ skills in practicing new ideas, discovering their own solutions, and developing coping strategies to deal with ever-changing situations. Technologies practiced under FFS usually are site-specific and suitable to the farmers who use them because the FFS participants themselves set up learning sites and put technologies into practice. As a result, adoption rates are usually high among FFS members. Transfer of knowledge to neighbours is also common in FFS since learning results are based on farmers’ experiences applicable to their neighbours.
2. Building self-confidence and enhancing decision-making capacity: FFS is not about transferring and teaching knowledge and techniques, as it is the case in conventional extension. The FFS approach empowers farmers in various aspects through confidence building and decision making exercises. Unlike in other extension approaches, farmers in the FFS approach are facilitated to take a lead in learning sessions under a participatory manner. Every FFS session allocates time for presentation of field observations followed by group discussion. In addition, participants in FFS are divided into subgroups and discussions among subgroup members are encouraged. These exercises involving tangible field results usually provide a foundation for participants to “own” the learning process, build their confidence and personal skills, and thus become empowered in their farming activities and collaborating with other farmers in finding solutions.
3. Minimising risks in experimenting with new practices: It is risky for subsistence farmers to switch from their conventional land use practices to new ones based only on information or short training sessions provided by extension workers. They simply cannot afford crop failures when trying out new systems. FFS provides farmers with the opportunity to try out new practices on a group farm where risks are minimal, and potential losses would be shared by group members. Learning sites are usually very small in size; sufficient only to test and compare new technologies and farmers’ own conventional farmers’ practices. They need only to contribute a half day per week of their time to participate in FFS, while they can continue working on their own food crops using their conventional farming methods. FFS does not promote new methods in isolation from regular farmer practices; rather it provides an opportunity for the participants to test and compare alternatives in a relatively risk free environment with measurable figures for discussion and debate among participating farmers. FFS is therefore a less risky approach for subsistence farmers compared to most conventional extension methods.
4. Changing deep-rooted beliefs and practices: Farmers have a wealth of knowledge, which is usually based on their experience. It is also true that they are sometime based on misconceptions. Wrong ideas or false deep-rooted impressions cannot be easily swept aside through short-term training or field visits. FFS provides an analytical structure and season-long regular interactions with the field, facilitators, and other FFS members, which enables participants to learn first-hand the benefits of testing new technologies in PCE and to understand the behaviour of introduced crops. The FFS experience can as well assist them to recognise misunderstandings and avoid errors in farming practices or beliefs.
5. Developing problem-solving capabilities: A farmer is an agricultural entrepreneur who has to deal with constantly changing natural and socio-economic circumstances. To be successful, a farmer needs a range of skills including natural resource management, accounting, marketing, negotiation, problem-solving and conflict management. Without such capacities, farmers may be unprepared for uncertain events caused by political and economic unrests as well as climate change. Any one-off training event cannot provide solutions for all farm-related problems, nor can it provide the broad range of skills needed to support improved productivity at the farm level.
However, FFSs offer integrated learning opportunities for a period of one year in which participating farmers acquire problem solving capabilities that can encourage proactive behaviour and positive attitude towards an often uncertain future.
