Technical Manual

Farmer Field School

Approach
SUSTAINET E.A: FARMER FIELD SCHOOL APPROACH

TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE ....................................................................... 2 3.6 Meetings ........................................................ 5
1.0. INTRODUCTION............................................ 3 3.7 Learning Materials ...................................... 5
1.1 What are Farmer Field Schools?.............. 3 3.8 Group Dynamics. ......................................... 6
1.2 Why FFS?......................................................... 3 4.0 STEPS IN CONDUCTING FFS ..................... 7
2.0 ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF FFS.................. 3 5.0 KEY CONCEPTS AND TECHNIQUES USED
2.1 The group ...................................................... 3 IN FFS................................................................ 8
2.2 The Field ......................................................... 3 5.1 Ecosystem....................................................... 8
2.3 The Facilitator ............................................... 3 5.2 The Concept of What is This? What is
2.4 The curriculum ............................................. 3 That? ................................................................ 8
2.5 Programme leader....................................... 4 5.3 Agro Eco Sytem Analysis (AESA) ............ 8
2.6 Financing ....................................................... 4 Purposes of AESA are:................................. 8
3.0 CHARACTERISTICS OF THE FARMER FIELD 5.4 Participatory Technology Development
SCHOOL APPROACH................................... 4 (PTD)................................................................. 9
3.1 Farmers ........................................................... 4 5.5 Establishing PTD in FFS sites.................... 9
3.2 The field .......................................................... 4 5.6 Village immersion (do it yourself)........ 10
3.3 Extension workers ....................................... 5 Case Study of PTD Development:
3.4 The curriculum ............................................. 5 Eotulo Farmers’ Group, Meru District,
3.5 Training ........................................................... 5 Tanzania ..................................................................... 12

PREFACE
There are several initiatives in Eastern Africa to promote researchers, member organizations and institutions of higher
sustainable agriculture practices as environment-friendly and learning).
alternative to conventional agriculture. However, little has been
done to document the good agricultural practices or even lessons This manual is intended primarily for farmers and field extension
learnt from these initiatives. Farmers today still lack access to service providers. It is written in simple English language with
information on sustainable agriculture practices. Sustainable illustrations, and easy to understand.
agriculture seeks an environmentally sound, socially equitable
and economically viable ways to produce to meet the needs of the The process of documenting and publishing the manuals
present without compromising those of future generations. was supported by funding from GTZ. We thank our member
organizations and collaborators for their useful contributions to
SUSTAINET EA as a regional Network operating in Eastern the manuals’ development.
Africa endeavours to bridge the information gap on Sustainable
Agriculture to reach smallholder farmers through publication of
Manual Development Process.
simplified technical manuals on good agricultural practices. These
manuals contain useful technical information on good agricultural
practices that offer practical answers to questions normally asked This manual was prepared from good agricultural practices (GAPs)
by farmers of what, why, how. The manuals’ focuses are on: documented and published in 2006. The process was participatory
and interactive among the key stakeholders. This interactive
1. Agroforestry practices process culminated into a writeshop that was held in Naivasha.
2. Dairy Goat Improvements The writeshop process was facilitated by Chancery Media.
3. Soil and Water Conservation
4. Conservation Agriculture The writeshop began with presentation of the GAPs by the
5. Nine-seeded Hole facilitators. The participants included extension staff from various
6. Integrated Agriculture System organizations in East Africa, ACT and SUSTAINET staff, research
7. Organic pineapple production scientists from Nairobi and Sokoine universities, and artists.
8. Certification of organic products The participants were divided into groups to discuss the GAPs
9. Groundnut Production and develop them into manuals. This was followed by plenary
10. Farmer Field School.
presentations where participants gave positive critiques. Another
This manual is part of SUSTAINET’s effort to promote sustainable groups’ discussion to include comments from the participants
agriculture in the region. It is developed to reflect the experiences were held, followed with plenary presentations. Chancery Media
and views sustainable agriculture practitioners (farmers, then refined the language and presentations.

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 SUSTAINET E.A: FARMER FIELD SCHOOL APPROACH

1.0. Introduction 2.0 Essential elements of FFS

1.1 What are Farmer Field Schools? 2.1 The group
• Farmer Field Schools (FFS) consist of groups of of people (20-25 in number) who have a common
farmers who get together to study a particular interest, forms the core of a Farmer Field School.
topic. The FFS tends to strengthen existing groups or may
• The topics covered can vary from conservation lead to the formation of new groups
agriculture, organic agriculture, animal
husbandry, and soil husbandry, to income-
generating activities such as handicrafts. 2.2 The Field
• FFS provide opportunities for learning by doing. is the teacher. It provides most of the training
It teaches basic agricultural and management materials like plants, pests and other facilities. In
skills that make farmers experts in their own most cases, communities provide a study site with a
farms. shaded area for follow-up discussions..
• FFS is a forum where farmers and trainers
debate observations, experiences and present
new information from outside the community. 2.3 The Facilitator
is technically competent to lead members through
the hands-on exercises. The facilitator can be an
1.2 -Why FFS?
extension agent or a Farmer Field School graduate.
• Empowering farmers with knowledge and skills
• Making farmers experts in their own fields.
• Sharpening the farmers’ ability to make critical 2.4 The curriculum
and informed decisions. follows the natural cycle of the subject, be it crop,
• Sensitizing farmers in new ways of thinking and animal, soil, or handicrafts. This allows all aspects
problem solving of the subject to be covered in parallel with what is
• Helping farmers learn how to organize happening in the FFS field.
themselves and their communities.

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SUSTAINET E.A: FARMER FIELD SCHOOL APPROACH

2.5 Programme leader 3.0 Characteristics of the farmer field

the programme leader is essential to support the school approach
training of facilitators, get materials organized for
the field, solve problems in participatory ways, and 3.1 Farmers
nurture facilitators. The programme leader should
be a good leader who empowers others. are experts conducting their own field studies.
Training is based on comparison that they conduct.

2.6 Financing
3.2 The field
is an important element since Farmer Field Schools
can be expensive or low-cost depending on who is the learning place where farmers working in small
implements them and how they are conducted. groups collect data, analyze and make decisions
based on their analyses then present the decisions to
other farmers for refinement.

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 SUSTAINET E.A: FARMER FIELD SCHOOL APPROACH

3.3 Extension workers relation to ecology, economics, sociology and

education.
are facilitators not teachers. Once the farmers know
what to do the extension workers takes a back seat
only offering guidance when need be. 3.5 Training
is related to the seasonal cycle of the practice being
investigated such as land preparation, cropping,
harvesting, livestock feeds and so on.

3.6 Meetings
are held at regular intervals depending on what
activities need to be done.

3.7 Learning Materials

are generated by farmers and are consistent with
local conditions. Even illiterate farmers can prepare
3.4 The curriculum and fuse simple diagrams to illustrate the points
is integrated to include crop husbandry, animal they want to make.
husbandry, land husbandry and other areas in

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SUSTAINET E.A: FARMER FIELD SCHOOL APPROACH

3.8 Group Dynamics.

Training includes communication skills building,
problem solving and leadership and discussion
methods. Farmers implement their own decisions
in their own fields.

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 SUSTAINET E.A: FARMER FIELD SCHOOL APPROACH

4.0 Steps in conducting FFS

Ground working activities Training of facilitators on:

• Identify priority problems Crop/livestock production and protection technologies; message
• Identify solutions to identified delivery mechanisms using non-formal educationmethods (NFE);
problems participatory technology development (PTD) with emphasis on
• Establish farmers’ practices the approaches and developing guidelines on conducting PTD;
non-formal education methods with emphasis on what, when
• Identify field school participants
and how to use NFE in FFS; Group dynamics; special topics to be
• Identify field school sites addressed at every stage of training.

Establishment and
running FFS
Field Days With the guidance of
During the period facilitators, the group meets
Graduations regularly throughout the
of running the
This marks the end FFS, 1-2 field days Evaluating PTDs season and
of the season-long are organized Analyse collected • Identify PTDs
FFS. It is organized where the rest data • Carries out experiments
by the farmers, of the farming and field trials related to
• Interpret
facilitators and community is the selected enterprise
the coordinating invited to share • Economic
analysis • Implement PTDs (Test and
office. Farmers what the group has validate)
are awarded learned in the FSS. • Presentation
certificates. Farmers themselves • Conduct AESA and
facilitate during Morphology and collect
this day data
• Process and present the
data
• Group dynamics

Farmer run FFS

Follow up by facilitators
FFS farmer graduates now
have the knowledge and The core facilitators backstop
confidence to run their own on-going farmer run FFS
FFS.

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SUSTAINET E.A: FARMER FIELD SCHOOL APPROACH

5.0 KEY CONCEPTS AND TECHNIQUES USED IN The idea is promote learning by discovery and to
lead the person toward his or her own analysis.
FFS
5.1 Ecosystem 5.3 Agro Eco Sytem Analysis (AESA)
This entails both living and non-living things found Making the group management decision
in an area and the environment they are in. The
activity helps in identifying the functions of the
organisms found in the ecosystem and how they Purposes of AESA are:
interact with each other. • Promote learning by discovery and learners
towards their own analysis.
5.2 The Concept of What is This? What is That? • Guide farmers to critically analyze and make
better decisions on their own fields.
It is a discovery-based learning in which questions
are used to answer questions. Why AESA?

It leads the learner to the answer by asking questions. • It improves decision-making skills, through a
The purposes of this concept are: field situation analysis by observing, drawing
and discussing.
• to promote learning by discovery and lead • improves decision-making skills by presenting
learners towards their own analysis small group decisions for critique in the large
• to guide farmers to critically analyze and make group
better decisions on their own fields.
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 SUSTAINET E.A: FARMER FIELD SCHOOL APPROACH

Name of farmer field school: Date:

AESA No. Week No.
Group No.
Plot No.
Problem addressed:
General information Measurement Treatment
Variety: Length of leaves: Treatment schedule:
Date planted: Width of leaves:
Age of crop: No. of leaves:
Spacing: No. of diseased leaves:
Fertilizer: No. of dead leaves: Management practices:
Weather: Length of plant:
Time of observation: No. of pods:
Plant population
Germination %
Insect pests Plant drawing Natural enemies
Pests seen: Natural enemies seen:

Observations Recommendations
Soil moisture: What management practices should be applied?
Diseases:
Insect pests:
Plant health:
Deficiency:
Weeds:
Predators:

5.4 Participatory Technology Development 5.5 establishing PTD in FFS sites

(PTD) To conduct PTD, seven (7) important steps are
This is a process of collective inquiry with the followed:
purpose of initiating community action on solving
local problems. Step 1: Conduct Ground-working activities
The participants introduce themselves and the
PTD in farmer field schools empowers participants programme to build up a good relationship. In the
with analytical skills to investigate problems in process ideas about the attitudes, values and norms
farming practices in three ways: of the people in the community can also be shared
during this stage.
a) It empowers because of the specific insight, Step 2: Conduct village immersion activities
new understandings and new possibilities
that participants discover in creating better The participants are immersed in the village
explanations about their social world identified as possible FFS sites. Participants validate
local field problems and current farming practices
gathered during Ground-working activities.
b) Participants learn how to learn
Step 3: Prioritizing field problems
c) It liberates when participants learn how to create
A baseline survey tool is utilized to obtain more
new possibilities for action.
specific details of the field problems in the proposed
FFS sites. Field problems are then prioritized.

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SUSTAINET E.A: FARMER FIELD SCHOOL APPROACH

Step 4: Plan and design PTD activities innovations developed in conducting PTD activities
should be utilized in addressing similar field
After prioritizing field problems, the planning
problems in future.
and designing of PTD activities commence. The
participants identify which PTD activities will be
set up. 5.6 VILLAGE IMMERSION (DO IT YOURSELF)
5.6.1 Purposes of village immersion are to:
Step 5: Implement PTD activities
• Acquaint with the area know and be known
Participants should jointly evaluate all activities. • Make farm and home visits
The participants and facilitators should agree upon
the decision as to what PTD activities should be set- • Verify the baseline data collected during group
up in the FFS sites. working
• Pay courtesy call to the village elders
Step 6: Collect and interpret result of PTD • Develop or verify the village map
activities • Identify/appreciate the resources within the
Participants should be able to collect and interpret village
PTD results. This helps the participants to develop • Help to understand the cultural norms/social
innovations or discover technology gaps or new practices within the area.
problems for consideration in succeeding PTD
activities. 5.6.2 Methods:
• By using a village guide map
Step 7: Utilize result in succeeding PTD activities • Village guides or contact person
PTD results should be continuously utilized and

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 PARTICIPANTS IN THE PRODUCTION OF THIS MANUAL
Name, Designation and Organisation E-Mail and telephone contacts
1 Alfred Ombati [email protected]
Artist / Designer, Skyward Design and Marketing Ltd. +254 723 350 628 + 254 20 316912

2 Ayub Gitau [email protected], [email protected]

Senior Lecturer, University Of Nairobi +254 722878029, + 254 318262 Ext 452

3 David Dodova [email protected]

Teacher and Translator, Alliance Francaise, Nairobi and +254 0726667804, 0734677712, 0721162728
Language Solution Business Center

4 David Kangangi Njoka [email protected]

Disaster Risk Reduction/Small Programmes Coordinator. +254 720735449, +254 733965702
CCSMKE, Kerugoya, Kenya

5 Francis Njange [email protected], francis.njange @gmail.com

Head of Education and Training Dept. Molo, Kenya +254 725777421, +254 20 418717

6 Hellen Bradburn [email protected], [email protected]

Programs Coordinator, +255 754621020 +255 787621020
Arusha, Tanzania

7 Jacinta Murunga [email protected], [email protected]

Student, University of Bonn-Germany +254 718220529, +49 15201484918

8 Karani Sekiete [email protected]

Programme Co-ordinator, Moshi, Tanzania +255 754695191 +255 27 2752765

9 Lucy Stephen Mvungi [email protected]

Principal Agricultural Field Officer +255 784654968, +255 655654968

10 Mary Mate [email protected], [email protected]

Programme Co-ordinator, Diocese of Embu‑IRDP, Embu, +254 721535413, +254 68 31415, +254 31638, +254 31540
Kenya

11 Mathias Miburo [email protected]

Teacher, Mparamirundi, Burundi +257 79117741, +257 22217902,

12 Nganga Kihupi [email protected]

Associate Professor, Sokoine University of Agriculture, +255 32 604216, +255 7867963
Morogoro, Tanzania

13 Nyotumba Bonaventure [email protected]

Artist / Graphic Designer, Skywarddesign and Marketing Ltd +254 20 316912, +254 723 66 77 88

14 Patrick Rukwaro [email protected], [email protected]

Media Consultant +254 20 2508492, 712-373737

15 Philip Omuga [email protected], [email protected]

Programme Co-ordinator AEP, Homa Bay, Kenya +254 59 22098 +254 59 22624, +254 720995013

16 Stephen Kileo [email protected]

Programme Co-ordinator, Chema, Karagwe, Tanzania +255 28 2223226, + 255 754 756429, +255 2223226

17 Tom Apina [email protected]

Executive Secretary, SUSTAINET EA, Nairobi Kenya +254 20 4444252, +254 0722940789

18 Richard Apamo [email protected], [email protected]

Consultant, SUSTAINET EA, Nairobi Kenya +254 725 527207
 Case Study of PTD Development: Eotulo Farmers’ Group, Meru District, Tanzania.
The Eotulelo group had several questions: should they plough as usual, use a ripper before planting, or plant without
using a ripper? And would it be better to plant lablab (Lablab purpureum, a type of legume) or pigeonpeas in between
the rows of maize? They rented an acre (0.4 ha) of land to use as their field school site. They divided the field into five
plots, each with a different combination of techniques:

• Ripped plot, planted with maize intercropped with lablab. At the end of the season, this plot yielded 58 kg of maize, and
no lablab because of drought.
• Direct planting without ripping plot, maize intercropped with lablab (yield: 40 kg of maize, no lablab because of
drought).
• Ripped plot, planted with maize intercropped with pigeonpeas (yield: 35 kg; no pigeonpeas because of drought).
• Direct planting without ripping plot, maize intercropped with pigeonpeas (yield: 15 kg maize, pigeonpeas dried and
were not harvested).
• Farmer’s normal practice: ploughing twice, then planting maize intercropped with beans,

pigeonpeas and pumpkins (yield: 12 kg maize, pigeonpeas not harvested).

SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE INFORMATION INITIATIVE

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to improve the quality of lives of the rural poor through participatory approaches, documentation, lobbying and advocacy, knowledge and information management and
sharing, and capacity building with stakeholders in the Eastern Africa region.

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systems, genetic resources, cultivated biomass, soil, water and climate. One of its priority areas is ‘cultivated biomass’.

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Published 2010 by Sustainable Agriculture Information Initiative

Printed in 2010 by…………. P.O. BOX ……….., Nairobi, Kenya.

Correct citation
SUSTAINET EA 2010. Technical Manual for farmers and Field Extension Service Providers: Farmer Field School Approach. Sustainable Agriculture Information Initiative, Nairobi.

For more information contact:

Executive Secretary
Sustainable Agriculture Information Initiative (SUSTAINET E.A)
KARI-Narl, Waiyaki Way, P.O. Box 10375-00100, Nairobi Kenya
Tel.:+254 20 2604616, Fax: +254 20 2604617,
Email: [email protected], Website: www.sustainetea.org