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An initiative to scale up and institutionalise farmer driven study groups in Eastern and Southern Africa, with a particular focus on commercialisation and market access

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 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 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 [...]

The broad objective of the local chicken FFS is to improve income and household food security in the smallholders farming system.

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.

In East Africa, FFS are being used to address several sustainable livelihood aspects with integrated production and pest management (IPPM) as the entry point. The effectiveness of the FFS as a vehicle for achieving the goals hinges on their fiscal sustainability by the communities and local governments. In this regards, [...]