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A study to improve soil fertility and farm productivity under intensive crop-dairy smallholder farming systems was carried out in Kiambu District, central Kenya highlands in the period 2003-2005 using farmer field school approach.

The first Farmer Field School (FFS) Networks emerged in Western Kenya during 2000 as a result of exchange visits and communication between farmers, facilitators, trainers and project staff. Similar networks have subsequently emerged elsewhere in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. These FFS Networks were formed by farmers who graduated from an [...]

Proceedings of an international workshop in Jinja, Uganda, 24–29 April 2006. This publication is the coordinated work of the Land and Water Division of FAO, the Agricultural Economics Institute of Wageningen Agricultural University and Research Centre (LEI/WUR), Environment Alert, and other partners. It was produced as part of FAO’s Land and [...]

This study was an impact assessment of livestock farmer field schools (FFS) in smallholder dairy areas of Nakuru and Nyandarua Districts, Kenya. The study focussed on five main issues viz. effectiveness, sustainability, farmer preferences, and relationships and behaviour, and used a doubleblind approach involving comparison of different sources of livestock [...]

This Market Facilitator’s Guide is a product of the experiences and lessons learned while implementing agroenterprise projects in eastern and southern Africa. The Guide is based on a resource-to-consumption framework, which is the central theme of the “enabling rural innovation” (ERI) approach for rural development. This approach seeks to empower [...]

This report describes the 1st Regional meeting of the Expansion of Farmer Field School Programme in Eastern and Southern Africa Project held in Kakamega, Western Kenya from 13-17 November 2006. The meeting was organised into three main parts 1) Country presentations and discussions, 2) Field visit to FFS groups and [...]

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 [...]

This paper illustrates that the transition to promoting farmer innovation systems requires a total change in mindsets and in strategies for conducting formal research.

This paper is based on participatory development research carried out in Soroti district of Uganda with the aim to assess the impact of agricultural development among poor farmers. The central argument in this study is that a combination of farmer empowerment and innovation through experiential learning in FFS groups and [...]