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The farmer field school (FFS) is a season long training of farmers involving participatory activities, hands-on analysis and decision making. Because it requires significant investments in time, trainers and other facilities, the approach can be an expensive way of diffusing new science-based knowledge and other information to farmers. However, if [...]

In an effort to mainstream HIV resilience building in the agricultural sector, UNDP South East Asia HIV and Development Project, in collaboration with the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations and the Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programme, has pioneered an experiment called the Farmer Life Schools.

This is a trainer's reference guide on crop development, major agronomic practices, disease and insect management, written for small-holders' tea cultivation in northern Vietnam. The guide will also be of interest to tea producers in other parts of the world who want to apply an ecological approach to crop [...]

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 [...]

This manual is meant for those involved in facilitating farmer studies to farmer field school graduates. The tools and principles provided here improve planning and analysis of field studies and prepare trainers to facilitate scientific method to farmers. The manual is for study by individual trainers or for discussion at [...]

The article presents and compares experiences in working with farmers to manage rice blast and potato late blight. In these cases, farmer groups learned about disease processes and management techniques, and tested promising crop varieties and breeding lines with the support of extension and research organizations