The document summarizes KTDA's sustainable agriculture project which uses Farmers Field Schools (FFS) and Rainforest Alliance (RA) certification to promote sustainable farming practices. The project has trained over 300 TESAs as facilitators and established over 500 FFS across 55 factories. Key achievements include increased yields, farmer empowerment, and continued production of high quality tea. However, challenges remain around capacity, education levels, competition, and costs of compliance. The project aims to scale up FFS to reach all smallholder farmers by 2015.

1. Farmers Field Schools (FFS) and RA Certification Scalability
By Mbadi. P.K
11- 13th April 2012

2. CONTENTS
• 1. Introduction
(KTDA Brief History, Mission/Vision and structure)
• 2. The sustainable agriculture Project
(RA certification and FFS Scalability)
• 3. Achievements
• 4. Challenges

3. BRIEF HISTORY
• Tea was introduced in Kenya in 1903.
• Smallholder cultivation started in 1950’s
• Special Crops Development Authority established in
1960.
• Kenya Tea Development Authority Established in 1964
with 2 factories
• Kenya Tea Development Agency incorporated on 15th
June, 2000 with 45 factories.
• The Agency currently manages all the 65 tea factories
600,000 small-scale tea farmers

4. KTDA’S Mission
• To provide effective management services to the tea sector
for efficient production, processing and marketing of high
quality teas and investing in related profitable ventures for
the benefit of the shareholders and other stakeholders.
KTDA’S Vision
• To be the leading management and marketing
company of high quality tea products in the world.

5. KTDA Organization Structure
KTDA Board
12 Elected Farmers representatives from 12 Zones
The Factories Boards
Six Farmers representatives
Leaf collection centres
Five Farmers representatives
600,000 farmers from the 65 factories catchments

6. KTDA and Factory Structure
KTDA
RM
Factory Unit Manager
54
Field Services Coordinator
PM FA
TESAs
F A R M E R S 600,000

7. Sustainable Agriculture Project
• In 2006 KTDA and Unilever with funding from DFID initiated a pilot
project on sustainable agriculture practices using Farmers field school
extension methodology among small scale tea growers, in 4 Pilot
factories.
• Due to the success of the pilot project, KTDA with Funding from IDH
and Dutch Embassy (Nairobi) is rolling out the FFS methodology to all
its factories as a program to promote sustainable agriculture,
empower farmers and improve extension services.
• KTDA, in collaboration with Rainforest Alliance, Unilever and other tea
packers, has trained and certified 36 factories in 2010 and 2011 on
sustainable agriculture practices

8. Project Objectives
• Train and certify on the Rainforest Alliance (RA) program
• Train extension staff on FFS methodology for all KTDA
factories
• Support FFS up-scaling program for two years
• Study wood fuel consumption reduction best practice, in
partnership with other actors in the tea sector
• Study FFS and certification programs to determine and
share best practice system design for scaling up for training
activities

9. How Partners Relate
IDH/RA (funds)
DUTCH EMBASSY/ETC
S. A.
PROJECT
Unilever KTDA
Contribution SA-STC Contribution
In Kind In Kind
(Personnel ) Technical Committee (Personnel )
Vehicles
Implementation team

10. APPROACH
TWO STREAMS OF ACTIVITIES
– RA Certification of factories according to Market demand
We use lead farmer model and sensitization methods to drive this
– Farmer Field Schools (FFS)- Extension methodology
• Training of TESAs an FSCs as Facilitators--Complete
• Rolling out of FFS in all factories- On going
• Up scaling FFS by 2015
• Backstopping
• Study and Design Up scaling process

11. FFS Scalability Structure
Factory Unit
FFS 1
FFS 6 -Electoral Areas
2 1. 6- Directors
FFS 6
2. 6- TESAs
Factory Catchment
Avg. 15,000 Farmers
3. 6- FFS
3
5
FFS FFS
4
FFS
TESA- Tea Extension Services Assistant
FFS - Farmers Field School

12. • FFS Scalability
Electoral Area
•10-Leaf collection Centers
•1. 1- TESA
Electoral Area
1,800 Farmers
•2. 180 Farmers/LCC
FFS Roll out is aimed at all 3,900 LCC

13. FFS FORMATION AND GRADUATION
REGIONS NO. OF No. OF FFS No. OF FFS TOTAL FFS No. OF FFS IN
FACTOR STARTED STARTED FFSs GRAD OPERATION
Y 2010/2011 2011/2012 TO UATE
DATE D
R1 11 46 37 83 34 49
R2 9 47 20 67 41 26
R3 8 45 31 76 41 35
R4 7 45 39 84 39 45
R5 8 34 44 78 6 72
R6 9 58 41 97 18 79
R 7 3 22 9 31 7 24
516
(15,400
Total 55 297 221 186 330

14. Training of Facilitators (TOT)
Training for Facilitators Training on FFS Methodology
Training of Pruners

15. Running of Farmer Field Schools
Farmer- run Trials Participatory Exploration by Farmers
Group Synthesis & Decision Making
Collective AESA

16. Use of Adult Education Methodology in FFS
Team Building Problem Solving
Group Dynamic Activity Group Discussion
Facilitation in Special Topics Demonstrations on certain Technologies

17. Achievements
1. Increase in yield by up to 15%
2. Improved health of both farmers and workers due to use of PPE
3. Healthy Environment.
4. Increased income due to diversification of farming
5. Continued production of high quality teas
6. Adoption of New technology is very high
7. Farmers feel empowered and can teach other farmers
8. Use the FFS graduates as lead farmers to train and inspect others farmers farms
during RA certification
9. Improved market demand on RA certified teas

18. Summary of challenges
1. Lack of capacity ( Facilitators) to accelerate the formation and
running of FFS to reach all the buying centers
2. Low education level of the farmers
3. Competition with other initiatives
4. Absenteeism from classes due to other family matters
5. Gender balancing.
6. Cultural and beliefs among different cultures
7. Lack of enough fund to support the up scaling
8. Decreasing smallholder farm sizes.
9. High cost of compliance –eg Audit Fee and PPE costs
18

19. THANK
YOU!
19
19