Presentation from Bill Settle, FAO, explaining the role of Farmer Field Schools and community based approaches in agricultural extension. The presentation was prepared and delivered in occasion of the International Symposium on Agroecology for Food Security and Nutrition, held at FAO in Rome on 18-19 September 2014.

1. Data from Human Development Report 2011, UNEP
Expenditure on public health (% of GDP)
Human Development Index (HDI)
Community-Based Adaptive Management: Farmer Field Schools (FFS) in West Africa
©FAO/William Settle
©FAO/William Settle

2. •
Approach : 25 years 90+ countries (30 in SSA)
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Small groups, Season- long
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No-risk experimentation
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Observations, Debate and Decisions
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Higher rates of adoption of locally adapted practices
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Platform for future entry and testing by farmers of new ideas
Community-based Education Farmers Field Schools
•Not a replacement for extension systems
•Platform for exchange among existing ‘mosaic’ of actors
©FAO/Olivier Asselin

3. •
Fundamental challenge is the heterogeneity and extent of agricultural systems
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Adaptation must take place at multiple scales
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FFS is Process-based

Focus on the scales at which management takes place

Stakeholder Involvement

“Experimentalist” philosophy
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FFS programme must “reinvent” itself in each new context
FFS : an Adaptive Process
©FAO/William Settle

4. •
400 Ha rice 793 farmers (from 2 FFS)
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Yields: 2.1 T/ha grew to 5.6 T/ha in two seasons
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66% reduction in chem fertilizer use
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Reincorporation of crop residues
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80% reduction in seed use
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Profits to farmers equivalent to annual project cost
Malanville, Benin FFS Rice

5. 4,324 households :
1,461 FFS trained (34%)
47,000 liters HHP not sprayed
Percent households trained
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
% pesticides purchased
0
20
10
30
40
50
60
Mali Cotton : Pesticide Reductions
Settle, et al 2014 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

6. •
Linking better to local markets
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Integrating “big data” (FAO/ESA)
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Community resilience assessments (SHARP)
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Community Listeners’ Clubs (Dimitra)
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Agro-forestry
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Monitoring pesticides and impacts (OSU)
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Harvesting Lessons-learned
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“South-south” collaborations
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Policies (all scales)
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Agro-pastoral FS
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Climate Change Adaptation
Current Areas of Innovation/collaboration
©FAO/Letha Tawney

7. Thanks to: Govt. of the Netherlands, EU, GEF, UNEP Governments and peoples of West Africa