Role of Copper and Zinc Nanoparticles in Plant Disease Management
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The Use of Farmer Field School to Drive Agroforestry Innovation Adoption: The Jamaican Experience
1. The Use of Farmer Field School to Drive Agroforestry
Innovation Adoption.
THE JAMAICAN EXPERIENCE
Ja REEACH CLIMATE SMART AGRICULTURE SYMPOSIUM | JUNE 16, 2014 | JAMAICA
2. About Farmer Field School
(FFS)
โข An extension training methodology that
focuses on learning through facilitation.
โข Conducted in the field where discovery
and experiential learning are promoted
around a specific focus problem
โข Farmer centered
โข Training is guided by a competent
facilitator
Facilitation
Discovery
Learning
Adult
education
Group
dynamics
3. Context: About The Focus
Problem
โข Much of the land occupied by small farmers is located on
steep slopes (in upper watershed areas)
โข Inappropriate farming practices.
โข Farmers sometimes advance further upland and clearing
forested.
โข Farmers in degraded watershed are more vulnerable to
the impacts of climate variability.
4. Integrating Agroforestry Innovations
โข Agroforestry was selected by the Ja REEACH Project as
the land use alternative of choice to reduce
vulnerability and improve both the livelihoods and the
adaptive capacity of rural families to climate change
โข To achieve this Ja REEACH designed the Agroforestry
Farmer Field School (AFFS) and Agroforestry as a
Business (AfaaB) training programs that transferred
agroforestry technologies based on local assessments
5. Case Study - Implementing the Agroforestry Farmer Field School
(AFFS) ith Jamaican small-farmers
6. Process of AFFS Implementation
Curriculum
Development
โข Jamaica specific agroforestry curriculum based on
stakeholder consultation and diagnosis and design
Training
โข Training of Trainers followed by in-field delivery of
Technical Modules
Practical
Application
โข Farmers Practise and implement agroforestry and land
husbandry innovations on the learning or DEMO plots
Best Practice
Diffusion
โข Members of the field schools apply the innovations on
their farms.
7. List of Innovations implemented (linked to GCC
challenge)
Climate Driven Challenge Agroforestry Innovations & Climate-smart BMP Climate Change Benefit
Drought โข Rainwater harvesting
โข Fire Boundary / Breaks
โข Mulching
โข Fodder Bank
โข Integration of drought tolerant crops
โข Adaptation
More intense rainfall
(flooding/ soil loss)
โข Individual Basins
โข Gully Plugs
โข Contour farming (using barriers)
โข Riparian Strips
โข Spot filling
โข Adaptation
Temperature & Increased
Pest and Disease
โข Integrated Pest Management
โข Shade house
โข Adaptation
Stronger and more
frequent high wind events
โข Wind break
โข Pruning
โข Line Planting
โข Adaptation &
Mitigation
27. Program Results
โข 14 AFFS were established across seven parishes that
reached over 700 farmers including youth and women:
โข 12% were in the 18-25 age group (42% of those are female)
โข 35% of all AFFS participants were female
โข Over 74 hectares of watershed areas applying agroforestry
innovations as per D&D and farm plan were improved.
โข Over 45,000 seedlings for economic tree crops were planted
including, cocoa, coffee, ackee, citrus, breadfruit and exotic
fruits
โข Pre and post training assessment determined that farmers
demonstrated a 33% increased in knowledge.
โข GIS data collected from farmersโ plot showed that all
participants implemented one or more innovations. Most
popular being spot planting.
28. Lessons Learned
โข The AFFS is an effective training approach to stimulate group
learning and adoption around a focus problem and group dynamic
โข The strength and effectiveness of a FFS group depends greatly on
the existing;
๏ง Organization structure,
๏ง Human resource skills available
๏ง leadership
๏ง Management of resources and conflict.
๏ง Competency of the facilitator
โข Effective implementation of AFF requires institutional and value
chain partner support. (Pluralistic extension)
โข Participants showed more interest in plants that provide services
to the ecosystem and also generate timely economic returns.
โข Land tenure influenced agroforestry and land husbandry decision
The most widely adopted adaptation strategies by rural families to cope with global changes in tropical regions (climate, economic globalization, urbanization, communications, etc.)
a sound alternative for both an adaptation and a mitigation strategy to climate change
The training program was organized in two phases.
Phase one involves extensive grounding in the Farmer Field School (FFS) extension methodology. This includes fundamentals of the FFS adult learning philosophy and methodology The AFFS is characterized by the delivery of technical modules that are used to establish training demonstration plots.
Phase two involves the delivery of technical modules by the trained facilitators to farmer groups.
Reference agroforestry strategy on point # 1