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This study was conducted to determine the effectiveness of the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach in knowledge acquisition, adoption and dissemination of soil management technologies (SMTs) among small-scale farmers in Kenya. Eight technologies were scaledout using the FFS approach and conventional extension methods. A survey methodology with the ex-post facto [...]

What considerations lead policymakers to invest in agricultural extension as a key public responsibility, and what factors and agency incentives explain differences in extension system performance? To help answer these questions, this article provides a framework outlining farmers’ demand for information, the public goods character of extension services, and the [...]

Many technological innovations have been developed to improve agricultural productivity in Sub Sahara. However, the adoption of these innovations has been low. Appropriate extension models are often seen as the missing link between adoption and the achievement of productivity gains. Although, Zimbabwe’s agriculture continues to be a vital cog in [...]

Economic evaluation of the Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) in the Cajamarca Department (Peru) was undertaken to help determine whether agricultural extension via FFSs can contribute to poverty alleviation. Farmer Field Schools involving a number of important crops have already been evaluated at other sites around the world. These studies reported [...]

Agricultural extension systems in sub-Saharan Africa are increasingly using participatory approaches to improve technology adoption by smallholder farmers. This approach has been successful particularly in low-rainfall areas, where adoption is traditionally slow. Crop productivity, farm incomes and food security have improved as a result. ICRISAT worked with Zimbabwe’s Department of [...]

The agricultural extension service in Uganda has in the last 40 years used a variety of approaches to disseminate technologies developed by researchers and other partners. These included regulatory, advisory and educational approaches. The regulatory and advisory approaches were top-bottom and non-participatory in nature.

This paper, as a part of a report from an international learning workshop, describes how farmer field schools have been adopted in the nationally designated poverty county of Huoshan, Anhui, with the support of a bilateral poverty alleviation project to meet the needs of farmers and help them to help [...]

This thesis will deal with the issue of low adoption rates regarding improved agricultural technology by vulnerable farmers; the barriers and constraints to adoption; and on how to reach an understanding of how to reduce or mitigate such constraints. The thesis will apply a general theoretical discussion of the theories on food security and [...]

The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 briefly describes the farmer field school extension approach, while Section 3 discusses the potential of formal and informal farmer-led diffusion mechanisms to enhance the fiscal sustainability of this approach. Sections 4 and 5 present evidence on the fiscal sustainability issue from the [...]

Farmer field schools (FFS) and local agricultural research committees (CIALs) are participatory platforms for improving decision-making capacity and stimulating local innovation for sustainable agriculture. CIALs are a permanent agricultural research service staffed by a team of four or more volunteer farmers elected by the community. The committees create a link [...]