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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

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 Farmer Field School (FFS) approach was developed by FAO and partners as an alternative to the prevailing top-down extension method. The approach promotes farm-based experimentation, group organization and local decision-making. Countries have expressed strong interest in integrating FS into their national policies, strategies and programmes. Considering the expansion of FS in terms of both numbers and geographic scale, concerns have emerged about how best to ensure a minimum level of quality of FS programmes while maintaining the required flexibility. A Global FFS Review, conducted in 2012 by FAO, identified the steps and conditions required to set up strong and sustainable FFS programmes, including the need for institutionalization to harness quality FS through standardized guidelines and harmonized implementation procedures. Although FS are widespread in the Eastern Africa region, the mainstreaming of the approach within national extension systems varies widely and the integration of FS knowledge in mainstream Institutions of Higher Learning (IHLs) is minimal. As a result, extension graduates lack the level of FS expertise required in the field. This is exacerbated by the fact that policy-making regarding the integration of FS in IHLs cuts across multiple ministries, in particular, ministries of education, which govern colleges and universities, and ministries of agriculture, which host the majority of FS expertise and knowledge in the field. The project aimed to bridge this gap between ministries and IHLs in order to enhance harmonized, systematic capacity-building for future cadres of FS actors.
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    Understanding the Farmer Field School agro-ecosystem analysis board 2021
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    The ecosystem-literacy training employed in FFS is vital for enabling smallholder farmers to master the management skills required for sustainable crop production intensification and diversification. This is radically different from the approach used by more traditional extension systems which are designed for “technology-transfer” purposes. Agro Ecosystem Analysis (AESA) is the cornerstone of the field school approach and is based on the ecosystem concept, in which each element at the crop/farm/field has its own, unique role. It involves crops or commodity observations, data collection, analysis, interpretations or discussions, and recommendations. Farmers use AESA method to understand the situation of crop ecosystem in the FFS approach. However, the method still included a reasonable level of complexity where the farmer has to deal with numeric and textual data. This remained a challenge for the facilitator to communicate with the farming community, who cannot easily write and read the observations and perform analysis on a paper sheet and also in the presentation of the same AESA sheet. The New AESA Board is devised to mitigate the challenge of illiteracy and some other challenges in participatory group learning including the difference of age, education level, gender equality, wealth position, social activism in the field school. The pre-designed AESA board provides equal opportunity to all participants including literate, illiterate or poor literacy services. This AESA board along with analytical color language named Jam's 4 Colors by FAO Pakistan remains among the top innovations of 2020.
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