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Farmers taking the lead: thirty years of farmer field schools










FAO. 2019. Farmers taking the lead - Thirty years of farmer field schools. Rome Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.



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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)
    Farmer field schools, gender equality, social inclusion and community empowerment
    Experiences from Uganda - Karamoja sub-region, case study
    2020
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    The main objective of this exercise has been to collect and analyze the experiences of Farmer field schools (FFS)/Agro-pastoralist field school (APFS) members, graduates, and practitioners in relation to gender equality, social inclusion, and individual and community empowerment, as well as changes to these as a result of participation in an FFS/APFS. Furthermore, the purpose of the initiative is to make farmers’ experiences more visible, and not only demonstrate the impact of FFS/APFS programs but also use these experiences in future implementations of the FFS/APFS approach. By identifying gaps in knowledge and opportunities, achievements and challenges, and best practices and lessons learned, this exercise aims to provide an insight into and deeper understanding of the FFSs’/APFSs’ gender and social dimensions. It offers the opportunity to reflect on this cross-cutting issue to allow these aspects to be better incorporated into the broader FFS/APFS discussion and its wider work. The exercise also identifies the needs of FFS/APFS facilitators in their work with issues of gender equality, social inclusion and community empowerment, and examines the relevance of related concepts and approaches and its modalities . A review of the existing work on strengthening gender equality and improving access for vulnerable groups within the context of FFS/APFS programs has also been conducted. The exercise’s main thematic areas of the exercise are gender equality and women’s empowerment, social inclusion and community empowerment, with additional areas including nutrition-related decision-making and sustainable agricultural production, and in some cases, access to and control over natural resources.
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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    FAO elearning - How to formulate farmer field school programmes? 2024
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    Farmer field school (FFS) is a participatory education approach that brings together a group of small-scale food producers to solve production problems through sustainable agriculture. The FFS approach offers space for hands-on group learning, enhancing skills for observation and critical analysis and improved decision making by local communities. This course provides guidance on the formulation of FFS programmes, from the identification of objectives and scope to data collection, activity planning, budgeting and the finalization of the project documents.

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