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Enabling institutionalization of the Farmer Field School approach











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    Book (series)
    Institutionalizing farmer field schools
    Twigire Muhinzi National Extension System in Rwanda
    2021
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    Investing in farmers – or agriculture human capital – is crucial to addressing challenges in our agri-food systems. A global study carried out by the FAO Investment Centre and the International Food Policy Research Institute, with support from the CGIAR Research Programme on Policies, Institutions and Markets and the FAO Research and Extension Unit, looks at agriculture human capital investments, from trends to promising initiatives. One of the nine featured case studies is the Twigire Muhinzi National Extension System in Rwanda. Twigire Muhinzi is the government’s homegrown, decentralized and farmer-oriented national system based on two complementary types of farmer-to-farmer extension approaches: farmer promoters and farmer field schools. The model showcases how an extension approach can improve farmer skills, knowledge and empowerment and thus lead to enhanced adoption of relevant technologies and practices. In Rwanda, mainstreaming the farmer field school approach into the national extension system along with financial support from public-private partnerships contributed to its scaling up. This publication is part of the Country Investment Highlights series under the FAO Investment Centre's Knowledge for Investment (K4I) programme.
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    Book (stand-alone)
    Institutionalizing Farmer Field School approach: experiences from Latin America 2018
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    The Farmer Field School (FFS) is a group-based experiential learning approach first developed by FAO 25 years ago in Southeast Asia rice paddies for training farmers to apply the principles of Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Since then, its use extended successfully including multiple crops, aspects of crop management beyond IPM and encompassing non-field activities related to farm enterprise development and marketing and other sectors as nutrition, climate change and health care. Against this background of increased expansion, the need of institutionalizing FFS emerged to increase its impact and unlock its potential in the long run and ensure sustainability while maintaining flexibility in its implementation and preserving quality and relevance of FFS activities. This report summarizes the results of the FAO study on Experiences from Latin American countries on institutionalization of FFS. It aims to present the common features of the institutionalization process in Latin America delving into the experiences of Peru, Bolivia, Honduras and Costa Rica. FFS has been instrumental in achieving FAO’s strategic objective 2 on improving sustainable agricultural intensification, reducing poverty and building resilience.
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    Book (stand-alone)
    How can the farmer field school approach be used to support agroecological transitions in family farming in the Global South?
    Recommendations for farmer field school facilitators, agricultural development project designers and managers
    2022
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    The key to implementing farmer field schools (FFS) is to trigger an experimentation process based on collaboration between a group of farmers and a facilitator. The purpose of this document is to provide project managers, technicians and designers with practical information on how to use the FFS approach and adapt it to their context of intervention to support the agroecological transition (AET). It also will be useful for research staff, leaders of farmers' organizations (FOs), teachers and students interested in using the FFS approach or better understand its benefits. The findings and recommendations proposed in this document are the result of a partnership between three institutions working to support AET in the Global South: CIRAD, FAO and the NGO AVSF (Agronomists and Veterinarians Without Borders). This document has four parts: - Definition of the FFS approach and its principles, and characterization of the advantages of this approach to supporting family farm AET in the Global South, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. - Presentation of several important points for a successful FFS, i.e. to strengthen farmers' skills to practically and collectively solve the problems they encounter. This second part is aimed specifically at development project managers and field technicians and facilitators. - Recommendations for project designers and managers for including FFS in development projects. - Proposal of ways in which FSS could evolve to better take into account the needs of farmers and other actors engaged in AET.

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