Climate smart agriculture farmer field school on vegetable growing

1. Pilot Farmer Field School on Climate Smart
Vegetable Growing and Chicken Rearing
Integration of Climate Change Adaptation/Climate Smart Agriculture
into the pilot farmer field school
February - May 2016
Life and Nature project
By Yim Soksophors, National Agronomist

2. Contents
1. Description of the problem
2. Objectives of pilot FFS
3. What is Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA)
4. Farmer Field School Brief
5. Implementation process of the pilot FFS
6. Immediate outputs from the pilot FFS
7. Lessons-learned
8. Next Action

3. Description of the problem
Climate change and
variation
Shortage of water due to
prolonged drought, erratic
rainfall, increase in
temperature
Soil erosion / soil degradation
Pest infestation on vegetables
Disease outbreak on chicken
Limited technical
knowledge of CSA
Limited knowledge and
technical skills in climate
change adaptation, climate
smart agriculture, etc.
Lack of successful example of
climate smart agriculture /
climate change adaptation
Lack of model farmers in
communities
Limited access to
good quality
agricultural inputs
Lack of access to tolerant seed,
water harvesting and supply
systems, etc.
Lack of connection between
farmers/producers and input
suppliers
Lack of alternative
income sources and
workload on women
Lack of appropriate agricultural
technologies for women
Time consumption, labour
intensive
High cost technology which is
not affordable by women /
poor families
A climate vulnerability
impact assessment and
agricultural rapid
assessment conducted to
collect key problem and
priority need (Oct. 2015)

4. Objectives of the pilot FFS
Objective 1:
Improve vegetable
and chicken
production
through farmer
field schools.
Objective 2:
Increase quantity
of vegetable and
chicken produced
for family
consumption and
incomes

5. “Climate-smart agriculture
(CSA) is defined by FAO. It
integrates the three
dimensions of sustainable
development (economic,
social and environmental) by
jointly addressing food
security and climate
challenges.”
What is climate smart
agriculture?

6. Farmer Field School Brief
15-20
members /
FFS
> 50% were women
4 FFS
3 vegetable FFSs and
1 chicken FFS
Trainers
from PDA
Provide
some start
up inputs /
materials
Key
activities
Exposure visit,
trainings,
demonstration/field
practice, field day

7. Implementation process of the pilot FFS
Identification
and selection
of interested
farmers
Organize
village meeting
to introduce
FFS
Organize
exposure visit
for interested
farmers
Organize
trainings for
FFS members
+ setup
demonstration
Provide follow
up visit and
advice
Organize field
day / final
session:
reflection and
planning
Provide
continuous
support to FFS
members

8. Key topics trained to FFS members
Basic climate change concept
Climate tolerant seed selection
Climate resilient soil management
Water saving techniques / water use efficiency
Integrated pest management (IPM)
Harvesting & post harvest management
Some basic climate change concept
Breed selection (local breed tolerant to local condition)
Construction of biosafety fence, mobile cage,
Feed & feeding for chicks and chickens
Disease prevention and treatment

9. Immediate outputs from the pilot FFS
Improved farmers’
technical understanding
and CSA application
Gained basic concept of
climate change, climate
smart agriculture.
Improved the practices of
water saving technique,
climate resilient soil
management, etc.
Reduced external input &
Improved understanding
on impact of chemical
pesticide on human
health, watershed, etc.
Built capacity of local
human resources / village
animal health workers
Village animal health
workers advanced
technical understanding
through participating in
the FFS
Some FFS members are
potential to become
demonstration farmers
Enhanced facilitation and
technical skills of
government counterparts
and project extension
officers
Government
counterparts and project
extension officers have
improved their technical
understanding and
facilitation skills in CSA-
FFS
Encouraged farmers to set
clear action plan / convert
from subsistent farmers to
commercial farmers (e.g.
participate in women
producer group…)
Some potential FFS
members are interested
in the women producer
groups. They wanted to
become members to
produce vegetables for
market supply

10. Immediate outputs from the pilot FFS (Cont.…)
Yield increased (increased
productivity on the same
arable land)
Increased duration of having
vegetables for family
consumption and family’s
income

11. Lessons-learned
• Exposure visit is a good way to motivate farmers to learn and apply new
techniques from successful farmers
• Working with young farmers is more effective because they have higher
motivation and commitment. In Ratanakiri, the young indigenous farmers can
speak Khmer very well.
• Field practices and sharing of knowledge and practical experience among FFS
members encourage farmers to learn actively. Top-down approach or using
transfer to technology approach does not work well in the FFS.
• Group training is not enough, individual follow-up visit and technical advice are
needed for the farmers to apply new innovations.
• Good relationships with the indigenous farmers, especially women, is important
to gain confidence and active participation.

12. Lessons-learned (continued)
• Visual training tools such as pictures
and video clips help illiterate farmers
to learn very well.
• Agricultural materials to be provided
to the FFS members should be
delivered in time. This would promote
high adoption rate of the technical
innovations.
• FFS record book provide a lot of
useful information, it must be used
regularly to record the whole cycle of
the FFS.

13. Conclusion
• The farmers have improved production and yield which is a good result of the pilot FFS. However, the
pilot FFS is just the start of the CSA-FFS. Some climate change adaptation practices were integrated into
the training curriculum, but not widely incorporated. However, farmers have gained basic
understanding of climate change concept, climate smart agriculture.
• The FFS itself is a mean for farmers to build resilience and adaptation capacity to climate change and
variation. The FFS group can also be upgraded to producer group – to become a market oriented group
that would make the group functional / sustainable.
• The pilot FFS on vegetable growing started late. It should be started in November – December after
rice harvesting. Long term administrative and logistic arrangement delayed the implementation of the
pilot FFS. Furthermore, the extreme drought also limited the adoption rate of the FFS members.
• Training / facilitation skill of the FFS trainers was like the top-down approach. limited change is
provided to the participants to share their knowledge and practical experience. However, there were
some field demonstration conducted that is good FFS training method. Particularly, technical
knowledge about climate change concept, climate smart agriculture is needed to be further improved
among our extension agents.

14. Next Action / Recommendation
• Continue providing technical follow-up support and technical advice for the FFS members
• Select leaders of FFS group. The FFS group needs to be well organized for further development.
• Integrate concept of climate change, climate change adaptation, climate smart agriculture, and
gender mainstreaming into all FFS training curriculum. At the same time, make linkage between
agriculture / FFS and watershed management.
• Participatory and discovery-based approach: Field trial led by farmers should be conducted to
discover technical innovations adaptable to climate change and variation. Students from research
and training institutions can also be involved in the trials.
• Provide TOT training for FFS trainers / FFS facilitators to improve their knowledge of climate smart
agriculture, climate change concept and facilitation of CSA-FFS.
• Promote further dissemination / diffusion of successful technical innovations from FFS members
to non-FFS members.
• To promote vegetable growing, improved water storage and supply systems are necessary. The
project’s intervention can be different depending on the site specific.

15. Next Action / Recommendation (Continued)
• Promote participation of the most vulnerable
people in the FFS. For example, the women
headed households, families with disabled
people, etc.
• Continue building up on the existing FFS
groups promote them to become economic
oriented group (e.g. producer group for market
linkage) with official recognition from local
authorities or specialized government
institutions. This would make the group
sustainable.
• Collect evidence based for mainstreaming CSA-
FFS in development plans and/or strategies in
the future.

16. Thank you for your attention!