Farmer Field Schools (FFS) aim to enable farmers to better manage their fields through participatory learning and experimentation. Immediate impacts of FFS include increased knowledge, decision-making skills, and yields, while longer term developmental impacts can include more sustainable production practices, livelihood improvements, and policy changes. FFS have proven effective in disseminating improved agricultural techniques, empowering farmer communities, and replicating across different crops and regions in Pakistan. Studies found FFS farmers in Sind province achieved 38% higher cotton yields compared to non-FFS farmers through more efficient use of inputs.
Examining a Network of Food Resources to Address Food InsecurityESD UNU-IAS
Examining a Network of Food Resources to Address Food Insecurity
Anthony P. Setari, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Educational Research Methods, Coordinator of Ph.D. in Education, Dept. of Education Policy, Research, and Evaluation, Spadoni College
of Education, Coastal Carolina University
Michelle Dzurenda, Graduate Coordinator, RCE Georgetown and Ph.D. Candidate, Educational Leadership
RCE Georgetown
10th Americas RCE Regional Meeting
5-7 October, 2021
Examining a Network of Food Resources to Address Food InsecurityESD UNU-IAS
Examining a Network of Food Resources to Address Food Insecurity
Anthony P. Setari, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Educational Research Methods, Coordinator of Ph.D. in Education, Dept. of Education Policy, Research, and Evaluation, Spadoni College
of Education, Coastal Carolina University
Michelle Dzurenda, Graduate Coordinator, RCE Georgetown and Ph.D. Candidate, Educational Leadership
RCE Georgetown
10th Americas RCE Regional Meeting
5-7 October, 2021
Elizabeth Bryan
POLICY SEMINAR
Bigger Change Faster: Integrated Development, Health, and Environment Actions for a Sustainable Future
Co-Organized by IFPRI, The Nature Conservancy, PATH, and Duke University
OCT 23, 2019 - 12:15 PM TO 01:45 PM EDT
Participatory training and mobile phone assisted approaches for strengthening...ILRI
Poster prepared by Michel Dione, Edwin Kangethe, Iddo Dror, Nicholas Ndiwa, Jane Poole, Emily Ouma and Barbara Wieland for the Virtual Livestock CRP Planning Meeting, 8-17 June 2020
Agricultural extension and rural advisory services: From research to actionIFPRI-PIM
PIM Webinar, 11 November 2021 // Presentation of innovative interventions that can be applied and adapted to enhance extension performance // Summary of agricultural extension research supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM).
Event page (full recording): https://bit.ly/3jRTRWy
See more on www.pim.cgiar.org
A Cross-Cultural, Participatory Approach for Measuring and Cultivating Resili...ESD UNU-IAS
A Cross-Cultural, Participatory Approach for Measuring and Cultivating Resilience on Small and Medium Farms
Walter Poleman, Co-Coordinator, RCE Greater Burlington, Senior Lecturer, Director of Ecological Planning Program, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, The University of Vermont
Christopher Nytch, RCE Coordinator, RCE Puerto Rico and Fundación Amigos de El Yunque
10th Americas RCE Regional Meeting
5-7 October, 2021
Mapping the Linkages between agriculture, food security and nutrition in MalawiIFPRIMaSSP
Presented by Robert Chizimba,Feed the Future, INVC
Presented at Report Launch “Mapping Linkages Between Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition in Malawi”
Ufulu Gardens, 28th April, 2015
Presentation by Sophia Huyer, CCAFS Gender and Social Inclusion leader, at the webinar on climate change and agricultural development.
Watch the webinar recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBGaXlBLmog
Enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services requires, developing and adapting innovative approaches, methods and tools for delivery of AEAS and ultimately scaling them up and out.
Prepared by:
Lead Authors
Walter de Boef, Marja Thijssen, Boudy van Schagen, and Tom van Mourik
Contributors
Tofa Abdullahi, Godwin Atser, Isabelle Baltenweck, Jens-Peter Barnekow Lillesø, Zewdie Bishaw, Elohor Diebiru-Ojo, Carlo Fadda, Alessandra Galie, Sita Ghimire, Lars Graudal, Aynalem Haile, Jon Hellin, Ramni Jamnadas, Alpha Kamara, Karen Marshall, Margaret McEwan, Adamu Molla, Baloua Nebie, Kwame Ogero, Chris Ojiewo, Lucky Omoigui, Michael Peters, Srinivasulu Rajendran, Cristiano Rossignoli, Lateef Sanni, Kelvin Mashisia Shikuku, Reuben Solomon, David Spielman, Abiro Tigabie, and Aboubacar Toure
Ethiopian Experience in Irrigatiion Development by Mr. Zena Habtewold BiruMalabo-Montpellier-Panel
The Ethiopian irrigation success story was the focus of the webinar organised by the Malabo Montpellier Panel on 14th February 2019, based on their second report, Water-Wise: Smart Irrigation Strategies for Africa, which summarizes the key findings of a systematic analysis of what six African countries at the forefront of progress on irrigation have done right: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Niger and South Africa.
The guest speaker and author of this presentation, Mr. Zena Habtewold Biru, Director of the Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate at the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and Focal Person for the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) discussed the case of Ethiopia’s remarkable growth in irrigation expansion over the last years, and the concrete practical steps that the government took to become one of the leading African countries in terms of agricultural irrigation, thereby reducing unemployment, poverty rate and malnutrition.
During the seminar Mr. Zena Habtewold Biru discussed the following questions:
•What did Ethiopia do differently?
•What are the main institutional innovations?
•What are the key policy measures?
•What are the country’s major programs and interventions?
•How and what did it take to mobilize the government to uptake strong regulatory frameworks that govern irrigation and the use of water in agriculture?
•What are the practical lessons for other Africans to learn from and to adapt to the context of their own countries?
Rhiannon Pyburn, Anouka van Eerdewij, Vivian Polar, Iliana Monterroso Ibarra and Cynthia McDougall
BOOK LAUNCH
Advancing Gender Equality through Agricultural and Environmental Research: Past, Present, and Future
Co-Organized by IFPRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)
NOV 23, 2021 - 09:00 AM TO 10:15 AM EST
Food and Nutrition Security in Africa seminar in Helsinki 16 June 2014, Two innovative approaches for disseminating information to farmers: Volunteer farmer trainers, Steven Franzel, ICRAF & Eija Laitinen, HAMK
Elizabeth Bryan
POLICY SEMINAR
Bigger Change Faster: Integrated Development, Health, and Environment Actions for a Sustainable Future
Co-Organized by IFPRI, The Nature Conservancy, PATH, and Duke University
OCT 23, 2019 - 12:15 PM TO 01:45 PM EDT
Participatory training and mobile phone assisted approaches for strengthening...ILRI
Poster prepared by Michel Dione, Edwin Kangethe, Iddo Dror, Nicholas Ndiwa, Jane Poole, Emily Ouma and Barbara Wieland for the Virtual Livestock CRP Planning Meeting, 8-17 June 2020
Agricultural extension and rural advisory services: From research to actionIFPRI-PIM
PIM Webinar, 11 November 2021 // Presentation of innovative interventions that can be applied and adapted to enhance extension performance // Summary of agricultural extension research supported by the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM).
Event page (full recording): https://bit.ly/3jRTRWy
See more on www.pim.cgiar.org
A Cross-Cultural, Participatory Approach for Measuring and Cultivating Resili...ESD UNU-IAS
A Cross-Cultural, Participatory Approach for Measuring and Cultivating Resilience on Small and Medium Farms
Walter Poleman, Co-Coordinator, RCE Greater Burlington, Senior Lecturer, Director of Ecological Planning Program, Rubenstein School of Environment and Natural Resources, The University of Vermont
Christopher Nytch, RCE Coordinator, RCE Puerto Rico and Fundación Amigos de El Yunque
10th Americas RCE Regional Meeting
5-7 October, 2021
Mapping the Linkages between agriculture, food security and nutrition in MalawiIFPRIMaSSP
Presented by Robert Chizimba,Feed the Future, INVC
Presented at Report Launch “Mapping Linkages Between Agriculture, Food Security and Nutrition in Malawi”
Ufulu Gardens, 28th April, 2015
Presentation by Sophia Huyer, CCAFS Gender and Social Inclusion leader, at the webinar on climate change and agricultural development.
Watch the webinar recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aBGaXlBLmog
Enhancing the efficiency and effectiveness of Agricultural Extension and Advisory Services requires, developing and adapting innovative approaches, methods and tools for delivery of AEAS and ultimately scaling them up and out.
Prepared by:
Lead Authors
Walter de Boef, Marja Thijssen, Boudy van Schagen, and Tom van Mourik
Contributors
Tofa Abdullahi, Godwin Atser, Isabelle Baltenweck, Jens-Peter Barnekow Lillesø, Zewdie Bishaw, Elohor Diebiru-Ojo, Carlo Fadda, Alessandra Galie, Sita Ghimire, Lars Graudal, Aynalem Haile, Jon Hellin, Ramni Jamnadas, Alpha Kamara, Karen Marshall, Margaret McEwan, Adamu Molla, Baloua Nebie, Kwame Ogero, Chris Ojiewo, Lucky Omoigui, Michael Peters, Srinivasulu Rajendran, Cristiano Rossignoli, Lateef Sanni, Kelvin Mashisia Shikuku, Reuben Solomon, David Spielman, Abiro Tigabie, and Aboubacar Toure
Ethiopian Experience in Irrigatiion Development by Mr. Zena Habtewold BiruMalabo-Montpellier-Panel
The Ethiopian irrigation success story was the focus of the webinar organised by the Malabo Montpellier Panel on 14th February 2019, based on their second report, Water-Wise: Smart Irrigation Strategies for Africa, which summarizes the key findings of a systematic analysis of what six African countries at the forefront of progress on irrigation have done right: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, Niger and South Africa.
The guest speaker and author of this presentation, Mr. Zena Habtewold Biru, Director of the Planning Monitoring and Evaluation Directorate at the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) and Focal Person for the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) discussed the case of Ethiopia’s remarkable growth in irrigation expansion over the last years, and the concrete practical steps that the government took to become one of the leading African countries in terms of agricultural irrigation, thereby reducing unemployment, poverty rate and malnutrition.
During the seminar Mr. Zena Habtewold Biru discussed the following questions:
•What did Ethiopia do differently?
•What are the main institutional innovations?
•What are the key policy measures?
•What are the country’s major programs and interventions?
•How and what did it take to mobilize the government to uptake strong regulatory frameworks that govern irrigation and the use of water in agriculture?
•What are the practical lessons for other Africans to learn from and to adapt to the context of their own countries?
Rhiannon Pyburn, Anouka van Eerdewij, Vivian Polar, Iliana Monterroso Ibarra and Cynthia McDougall
BOOK LAUNCH
Advancing Gender Equality through Agricultural and Environmental Research: Past, Present, and Future
Co-Organized by IFPRI and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)
NOV 23, 2021 - 09:00 AM TO 10:15 AM EST
Food and Nutrition Security in Africa seminar in Helsinki 16 June 2014, Two innovative approaches for disseminating information to farmers: Volunteer farmer trainers, Steven Franzel, ICRAF & Eija Laitinen, HAMK
Farmer Field Schools A Lecture By Mr Allah Dad Khan Former DG Agriculture Ex...Mr.Allah Dad Khan
Farmer Field Schools
A Lecture By Mr Allah Dad Khan Former DG Agriculture Extension Khyber Pakhtun Khwa Province & Visiting Professor Agriculture University Peshawar Pakistan
Innovations in agricultural extension: What can Ethiopia learn from global ex...ILRI
Presented by Ranjitha Puskur, Ponniah Anandajayasekeram and Sindu Workneh at the MoARD Workshop on “Improving Agricultural Extension Service Delivery Approaches”, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 22 June 2006.
IFPRI organized a two day workshop on “Agricultural Extension Reforms in South Asia – Status, Challenges, and Policy Options” to be organized at Committee Room 3, NASC, Pusa, New Delhi on February 17-18, 2015. IFPRI has been conducting research related to agricultural extension reforms in India and collaborating with researchers in other south Asian countries for the past five years through various projects. For understanding extension reforms in India, a major consultation was held in NAARM in 2009 during which policy makers called for development of evidence for spreading extension reform process in India. Since then several research papers have been produced on various aspects of Indian extension system. While they are presented in various forms including several discussion papers, there is a need to pull all the research result together to present it in form that could be used by the policy makers to further guide them in the reform process. South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Nepal, and Sri Lanka are going through similar challenges in getting knowledge to farmers. Several experiment shave been conducted to test new approaches to extension by the public, private and NGO sectors. Learning from each country experiences will bring collective understanding and knowledge for the policy makers who are attempting to bring changes in the reform process. The purpose of this workshop is to bring together a groups of researchers, analysts and policy makers to present the issues, constraints and challenges facing agricultural extension reforms that are being implemented in South Asian countries.
Farmer Led Extension is a promising approach wherein farmer leaders were utilized as extensionists to transfer the technologies they learned with a view to boosting up production.
The FLE approach gives farmers the opportunity to share their experiences and practices through a method demonstration with fellow farmers in the area.
Reasons for Group Led Extension
1. Efficiency
2. Effectiveness
3. Collective action
4. Equity
Farm school :
“Farm school is a field where latest technology was demonstrated to progressive and interested farmers who undergo training for a certain period of time. Farm schools help in speedy dissemination and adoption of technologies through training of progressive farmers on the latest production technology.”
What is Farmer Led Extension?
Farmer Led Extension is a promising approach wherein farmer leaders were utilized as extensionists to transfer the technologies they learned with a view to boost up production.
The FLE approach gives farmers the opportunity to share their experiences and practices through a method demonstration with fellow farmers in the area.
Reasons for Group Led Extension
1. Efficiency
2. Effectiveness
3. Collective action
4. Equity
“Farm school is a field where latest technology was demonstrated to progressive and interested farmers who undergo training for a certain period of time. Farm schools help in speedy dissemination and adoption of technologies through training of progressive farmers on the latest production technology.”
Farmer Field Schools (FFS) :
Farmer Field Schools (FFS) consist of groups of people with a common interest, who get together on a regular basis to study the ‘how and why’ of a particular topic.
The topics covered can vary considerably from Integrated Pest Management (IPM), organic agriculture, animal husbandry, and soil husbandry, to income-generating activities such as bio-agents production.
Farmers necessitate vast information to sustain their farmhouse activities. Information is
required not just on better and best practices & advanced technologies for production of crop
which is gained through Green Revolution but as well information about post harvest
perspectives including handling, processing, promoting, storage & marketing. Farmers need
access to convenient, firm, and pertinent information that can support intricacy inside which
their farm activities work. Even though farming expansion today has a wide array, this survey
demonstrates that in spite of pluralistic augmentation methods in India, the scope &
utilization of the said services are constrained. The purpose of this paper is to analyze rural
extension programs in of general society, private and third parts in India. The paper
investigates; fundamentals of extension, significance of rural extension, agribusiness
extension methodologies in India, general difficulties and limitations of agricultural extension
Connector Corner: Automate dynamic content and events by pushing a buttonDianaGray10
Here is something new! In our next Connector Corner webinar, we will demonstrate how you can use a single workflow to:
Create a campaign using Mailchimp with merge tags/fields
Send an interactive Slack channel message (using buttons)
Have the message received by managers and peers along with a test email for review
But there’s more:
In a second workflow supporting the same use case, you’ll see:
Your campaign sent to target colleagues for approval
If the “Approve” button is clicked, a Jira/Zendesk ticket is created for the marketing design team
But—if the “Reject” button is pushed, colleagues will be alerted via Slack message
Join us to learn more about this new, human-in-the-loop capability, brought to you by Integration Service connectors.
And...
Speakers:
Akshay Agnihotri, Product Manager
Charlie Greenberg, Host
Essentials of Automations: Optimizing FME Workflows with ParametersSafe Software
Are you looking to streamline your workflows and boost your projects’ efficiency? Do you find yourself searching for ways to add flexibility and control over your FME workflows? If so, you’re in the right place.
Join us for an insightful dive into the world of FME parameters, a critical element in optimizing workflow efficiency. This webinar marks the beginning of our three-part “Essentials of Automation” series. This first webinar is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills to utilize parameters effectively: enhancing the flexibility, maintainability, and user control of your FME projects.
Here’s what you’ll gain:
- Essentials of FME Parameters: Understand the pivotal role of parameters, including Reader/Writer, Transformer, User, and FME Flow categories. Discover how they are the key to unlocking automation and optimization within your workflows.
- Practical Applications in FME Form: Delve into key user parameter types including choice, connections, and file URLs. Allow users to control how a workflow runs, making your workflows more reusable. Learn to import values and deliver the best user experience for your workflows while enhancing accuracy.
- Optimization Strategies in FME Flow: Explore the creation and strategic deployment of parameters in FME Flow, including the use of deployment and geometry parameters, to maximize workflow efficiency.
- Pro Tips for Success: Gain insights on parameterizing connections and leveraging new features like Conditional Visibility for clarity and simplicity.
We’ll wrap up with a glimpse into future webinars, followed by a Q&A session to address your specific questions surrounding this topic.
Don’t miss this opportunity to elevate your FME expertise and drive your projects to new heights of efficiency.
Search and Society: Reimagining Information Access for Radical FuturesBhaskar Mitra
The field of Information retrieval (IR) is currently undergoing a transformative shift, at least partly due to the emerging applications of generative AI to information access. In this talk, we will deliberate on the sociotechnical implications of generative AI for information access. We will argue that there is both a critical necessity and an exciting opportunity for the IR community to re-center our research agendas on societal needs while dismantling the artificial separation between the work on fairness, accountability, transparency, and ethics in IR and the rest of IR research. Instead of adopting a reactionary strategy of trying to mitigate potential social harms from emerging technologies, the community should aim to proactively set the research agenda for the kinds of systems we should build inspired by diverse explicitly stated sociotechnical imaginaries. The sociotechnical imaginaries that underpin the design and development of information access technologies needs to be explicitly articulated, and we need to develop theories of change in context of these diverse perspectives. Our guiding future imaginaries must be informed by other academic fields, such as democratic theory and critical theory, and should be co-developed with social science scholars, legal scholars, civil rights and social justice activists, and artists, among others.
Transcript: Selling digital books in 2024: Insights from industry leaders - T...BookNet Canada
The publishing industry has been selling digital audiobooks and ebooks for over a decade and has found its groove. What’s changed? What has stayed the same? Where do we go from here? Join a group of leading sales peers from across the industry for a conversation about the lessons learned since the popularization of digital books, best practices, digital book supply chain management, and more.
Link to video recording: https://bnctechforum.ca/sessions/selling-digital-books-in-2024-insights-from-industry-leaders/
Presented by BookNet Canada on May 28, 2024, with support from the Department of Canadian Heritage.
The Art of the Pitch: WordPress Relationships and SalesLaura Byrne
Clients don’t know what they don’t know. What web solutions are right for them? How does WordPress come into the picture? How do you make sure you understand scope and timeline? What do you do if sometime changes?
All these questions and more will be explored as we talk about matching clients’ needs with what your agency offers without pulling teeth or pulling your hair out. Practical tips, and strategies for successful relationship building that leads to closing the deal.
DevOps and Testing slides at DASA ConnectKari Kakkonen
My and Rik Marselis slides at 30.5.2024 DASA Connect conference. We discuss about what is testing, then what is agile testing and finally what is Testing in DevOps. Finally we had lovely workshop with the participants trying to find out different ways to think about quality and testing in different parts of the DevOps infinity loop.
Neuro-symbolic is not enough, we need neuro-*semantic*Frank van Harmelen
Neuro-symbolic (NeSy) AI is on the rise. However, simply machine learning on just any symbolic structure is not sufficient to really harvest the gains of NeSy. These will only be gained when the symbolic structures have an actual semantics. I give an operational definition of semantics as “predictable inference”.
All of this illustrated with link prediction over knowledge graphs, but the argument is general.
GraphRAG is All You need? LLM & Knowledge GraphGuy Korland
Guy Korland, CEO and Co-founder of FalkorDB, will review two articles on the integration of language models with knowledge graphs.
1. Unifying Large Language Models and Knowledge Graphs: A Roadmap.
https://arxiv.org/abs/2306.08302
2. Microsoft Research's GraphRAG paper and a review paper on various uses of knowledge graphs:
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/graphrag-unlocking-llm-discovery-on-narrative-private-data/
PHP Frameworks: I want to break free (IPC Berlin 2024)Ralf Eggert
In this presentation, we examine the challenges and limitations of relying too heavily on PHP frameworks in web development. We discuss the history of PHP and its frameworks to understand how this dependence has evolved. The focus will be on providing concrete tips and strategies to reduce reliance on these frameworks, based on real-world examples and practical considerations. The goal is to equip developers with the skills and knowledge to create more flexible and future-proof web applications. We'll explore the importance of maintaining autonomy in a rapidly changing tech landscape and how to make informed decisions in PHP development.
This talk is aimed at encouraging a more independent approach to using PHP frameworks, moving towards a more flexible and future-proof approach to PHP development.
Slack (or Teams) Automation for Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Soluti...Jeffrey Haguewood
Sidekick Solutions uses Bonterra Impact Management (fka Social Solutions Apricot) and automation solutions to integrate data for business workflows.
We believe integration and automation are essential to user experience and the promise of efficient work through technology. Automation is the critical ingredient to realizing that full vision. We develop integration products and services for Bonterra Case Management software to support the deployment of automations for a variety of use cases.
This video focuses on the notifications, alerts, and approval requests using Slack for Bonterra Impact Management. The solutions covered in this webinar can also be deployed for Microsoft Teams.
Interested in deploying notification automations for Bonterra Impact Management? Contact us at sales@sidekicksolutionsllc.com to discuss next steps.
Knowledge engineering: from people to machines and back
5. Farmers field school (impact of ffs) A Series of Lectures ByMr Allah Dad Khan Provincial Director IPM KPK MINFAL Pakistan
1.
2.
3. Farmer Field Schools
(Impact of FFS)
A Series of Lectures
By
Mr. Allah Dad Khan Provincial
Director IPM KPK MINFAL
Pakistan
4. Defining impact
What is seen as impact of IPM depends on a project’s objective. What
do IPM initiatives attempt to achieve? Is the purpose to reduce
insecticide use, to enhance sustainable pest management, or to
enhance adaptive crop management? Is it to increase yields, to
increase profits, or to improve livelihoods?
Although initially, pest resurgence was the problem that triggered the
emergence of the IPM Farmer Field School, the objective has been to
enable farmers to become better managers of their fields. Crop health –
not pest control – was the central theme in most training. Later still, an
objective was added to help farmers become better trainers, organizers
and experimenters within their own locally developed programs.
The training often went further than increasing farmers’ technical
capabilities and also helped enhance their educational, social and
political capabilities.
This raises the question of what should be considered impact: the
immediate impacts such as farmer knowledge, decision capabilities,
pesticide use or yield, or the indirect developmental impacts such as
reduced poisoning, improved biodiversity, community agenda setting or
policy change
5. Table -Examples of immediate and developmental impacts of
the IPM Farmer Field School, arranged according to the
technical, social and political domain.Domain Immediate impact Developmental impact
Technical Knowledge about ecology More sustainable production
Experimentation skills Improved livelihoods
Improved crop management Ability to deal with risks,
opportunities
Pesticide reduction Innovation
Yield increase More cost-effective production
Profit increase Reduced water contamination
Risk reduction Reduced frequency of farmer
poisoning
Reduced public health risks
Improved biodiversity
Improved marketability of produce
Poverty reduction
6. Table Examples of immediate and developmental impacts of
the IPM Farmer Field School, arranged according to the
technical, social and political domain.
Domain Immediate impact Developmental impact
Social Group building Collaboration between farmers
Communication skills Farmer associations
Problem solving skills Community agenda setting
Farmer study groups
Formation of networks
Farmer-to-farmer extension
Area-wide action
Political Farmer-extension linkage Stronger access to service providers
Negotiating skills Improved leverage position
Educational skills Awareness campaigns
Protests
Policy change
7. PROGRAMME IMPACTS ENVIRONMENTAL/HEALTH
IMPACTS
1. Focus on IPPM has led to farmers
2. appreciating the importance of
3. Agroecosystem & hence having the attitude
4. to conserve the environment
5. FFS has also provided a study forum for
6. topics such as HIV/AIDS awareness, malaria
7. control, immunization, nutrition, clean
8. drinking water, pesticide exposure etc
8. PROGRAMME IMPACTS PROGRAMME
REPLICABILITY AND
SCALING UP IMPACTS
Farmers taking the initiative to start up FFS
themselves: about 30 self funded FFS have
emerged
A number of other donors and NGOs have
adopted the approach as a basis for the
implementation of their projects: UNDP,
USAID,EU, DFID, Rockfeller Foundation,
ILRI, KARI, a wide range of NGOs and local
institutions and the Ministry of agriculture
9. LESSONS LEARNED
A. The FFS is an effective and comparatively cheap
B. tool to encourage communities to validate and
C. adapt improved technologies to local conditions,
D. improve rural food security and income generation,
and empower farmers to find solutions to their
problems
E. FFS approach can be successfully used and
adapted to improve skills and knowledge of farmers
for a wide range of crops/livestock/natural resource
management enterprises.
10. Financing
Farmer groups managing directly the funds of the
FFS, in particular the payment for the provision of
extension services, substantially improved the
performance of extension delivery and
accountability of extension providers
The strategy used by the programme to promote
farmer led FFS has allowed a large number of
farmers to benefit. Investing in skill development
& networking of farmer facilitators allows
extension workers to reach many more farmers
compared to most other extension approaches.
11. Empowerment
FFS empowered communities and raised their
profile at district level, as has been demonstrated
by the creation of strong and cohesive FFS
networks. This FFS networks emerged without
external support. They have big potential in acting
as a platform for community based extension
activities, and for addressing marketing and
policy issues
12. Experience in FFS
Experiences suggest that approach is highly
appreciated by both sexes but females seem to
value the approach more due to the practical,
field-based learning focus and the social value of
FFS groups
13. Impact of FFS in Sind
Participant have 38 percent more cotton yield compared to non
FFS farmers. The major contribution to cotton’s yield was of input
labor man days as compared to other cotton crop inputs, which
indicates that cotton crop is more
labor intensive. However, the irrational use of chewing and
sucking pesticides has a negative impact on cotton’s yield.
The mean efficiency of all the farmers were estimated as 78
percent, which shows that 22 percent improvement is still
possible in technical efficiency of cotton growers. The FFS
farmers were found more technically efficient as compared to
non-
FFS farmers. The inefficiency variables such as age and
education shows that these two factors have a negative impact
on technical inefficiency however, contact of farmers with
agriculture extension department is increasing inefficiency, which
shows that there are weak linkages between Agriculture
extension department and farming community of the study area.
14. Impact of FFS in Sind
The high yield of FFS farmers urged the need that
FFS approach should be the part of non-development
programme in all the four provinces of Pakistan.
The FFS approach should be executed under the
umbrella of a single institution which will provide a
paved way for proper implementation of this
approach.
The focus of FFS approach on rational use of crop
inputs and environmental benign practices can also
help to meet World Trade Organization (WTO)
obligations. These obligations under sanitary and
phytosanitary (SPS) measures of WTO emphasis on
reasonable use of pesticide spray on crops.