FAO.org

Bacterial wilt (Ralstonia solanacearum) is a serious disease of potato. It can be managed with cultural practices, but only if farmers understand the technologies, and the reasons behind them. Face-to-face extension methods, like farmer field school (FFS), can teach these messages to smallholders, but other methods may also be useful. [...]

The purpose of this review is to summarize the literature on the role of agricultural extension systems in helping smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia increase agriculture production and their livelihoods.

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

Recent research on the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach in agriculture in developing countries has raised some doubts on the economic impacts of this concept and especially the knowledge diffusion effects from trained to non-trained farmers. Based on a study in Senegal this paper hypothesizes that the question of the [...]

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 [...]

The goal of this paper is to show how culture – shared norms and values – is challenged and used to facilitate cooperative behavior within the context of farmer field schools (FFS) in central Luzon, Philippines. The success of the FFS is primarily associated with cultural norms that encourage experiential [...]

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 [...]

The SARD Project Toolkit summarizes frameworks, approaches and tools that can be used to promote sustainability in the management of agricultural and rural development projects and programmes.

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 [...]