Effect of Farmer Field School (FFS) on the Knowledge, Attitude, Practices and Profitability of Rice Farmers

Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) Model explains the individual’s knowledge which affects attitude and consequently changes the actual practices. The study investigated the effect of the Farmer Field School (FFS) on the knowledge, attitude, practices, and profitability of rice farmers in Babatngon, Leyte, Philippines. Ninety-four participants, which included 47 FFS farmers and 47 non-FFS farmers, were randomly chosen. Data were analyzed using descriptive and comparative statistics, cost and return analysis, and multiple regression analysis. Results showed that FFS farmers have a significantly higher level of knowledge than non-FFS farmers in the Palaycheck System (p-value<0.001). Additionally, FFS farmers have a significantly great extent of practice than non-FSS farmers in the Palaycheck System (p-value<0.001). Furthermore, farmers with high knowledge, positive attitude, and the great extent of practice on Palaycheck system gain more profit. Therefore, farmers should acquire more knowledge, a positive attitude, and more practice on production technologies to increase profit. Farmer Field Schools (FFS) and demonstration farms should be established in multi-locations to highlight the benefits of the Palaycheck technology for widespread adoption.

An Analysis of Facilitative Factors in Farmer Field School (FFS) and Conventional Extension Method of Trainings among Women Groundnut Producers

There has been a paradigm shift in extension purview all over the world to factor upon participation of farming fraternity in all possible ways of extension services. In spite of several efforts over three-four decades the technology transfer process and methodology still remains the same and unchanged. While the world bank introduced (in 1970s) Training and Visit (T&V) system of top down extension approach focusing on dissemination of Green Revolution technologies, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) introduced Farmer Field School (FFS) (in 1980s) that emphasized mainly the bottom up-participatory-facilitative approaches in technology transfer process. The objective of this paper is to study the facilitative factors followed in both conventional and FFS way of training, this was assessed through 10 training topics covered in both the method of trainings. Three hundred (300) farm women who had involved in groundnut cultivation in Pennagaram villages, Dharmapuri, India who got trained under FFS and T&V ways separately were surveyed for this study. From 90 to 95% of the survey respondents indicated that they found the facilitative factors followed in FFS way of training was better effective than T&V way of conventional extension training. The mean scores of FFS ranged from 0.82 to 0.94 and significantly differed with the T&V way of conventional extension training score ranged from 0.03 to 0.16.

Effectiveness of Farmer Field School and Conventional Extension Trainings on Knowledge Gain among Farm Women

The world extension forum over three-four decades emphasized the people centric bottom up approach in extension work. In mid 1970s world bank had introduced Training and Visit (T&V) system of extension in 70 countries including India. This solely emphasized the dissemination of Green Revolution technologies to farmers, mainly in Asian and African countries with top down extension approach. Subsequently, FFS emerged in the rice paddy fields of the Philippines and Indonesia in the late 1980s where, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) had heavily involved from its incubation, development and spread to Asian, African countries and other parts of world in 1990s with the emphasis on bottom up approach and participatory extension services. This demanded a paradigm shift in extension purview and its methodology to factor upon farming fraternity participation in all possible ways. Despite that the technology transfer process remains unchanged and unrefined till now. The best features of extension methodologies are identified by making literature review pertaining to Farmer Field School (FFS) and Training and Visit (T&V) method of extension trainings. Both Farmer Field School (FFS) and conventional extension training methodologies were used to train women groundnut growers in Pennagaram villages, Dharmapuri, India and the change in knowledge level and the effectiveness of methodologies were studied. In context, 29 important crop production practices in groundnut cultivation were identified and surveyed with 300 participants of which, 50% of participants ( n=150) exposed to FFS way of training and 50% of participants (n=150) exposed to T&V way of training. Most (90-95%) of the survey respondents found that the FFS way of training as better effective than T&V way of training. Similarly, the knowledge level of 80 to 85% of participants who participated FFS way of training found to be more than the participants who attended T&V way of training.

Co-constructing principles for Digital Farmer Field School Enrekang Design in South Sulawesi - Indonesia

Considering the challenges on sustainable agriculture in the district, different institutions join hands to overcome these issues and respond to the felt need of working more integrative both in the agricultural sector and environmental knowledge system. Adding a sense of urgency due to COVID-19 into problem analysis, these institutions accelerated the ambition to develop a Digital Farmer Field School (DFFS). This paper elaborates on the co-construction of principles for the design of a Digital Farmer Field School (DFFS) by the local stakeholders in Enrekang district. The local design team design of the DFFS Enrekang is composed of a transdisciplinary team from relevant government institutions and research institutions. The design principles of DFFS are built around inclusive design principles, concepts of interface usability based on different type of access to digital technology models, responsible innovation criteria and learning principles of farmer field school (FFS). The DFFS Enrekang design principles serve as guiding principles and shared value among the collaborating institutions to combine ambition, inspiration, and accountability in the DFFS management and development processes. This tablet based digital learning platform aims to provide an alternative for farmers to access information on sustainable agricultural and environmental practices.

Soybean Farming Income between Cooperators and Non-Cooperators during Farmer Field School Program in Central Lombok - Indonesia

Soybean is one of the strategic commodities in Indonesia. Demand of soybean continues to increase every year but not followed by adequate supply. In order to increase soybean production, apart from being driven from technical aspects, it is also necessary to pay attention to farmer participation. The aimed of this study were to examine differences in income of the cooperator and non-cooperator farmers during farmer field school (FFS) program and to measure level of technology applied by co-operator farmers in Central Lombok Regency, Indonesia. Numbers of respondents in this study were 26 farmers who were taken by purposive sampling. The research used quantitative method using Benefit Cost (B/C) ratio analysis to calculate the feasibility of farming and scoring analysis to measure the level of technology applied. The results showed that there was a difference in income between co-operator and non-co-operator farmers. The B/C ratios of the two farmer groups indicated that feasibility value were 1.22 and 0.87 for cooperators and non-cooperators, respectively. Those values mean that farming in the FFS program was profitable to implement, while non FFS farming was still feasible but have not provided benefits. The level of technology applied by co-operators was still in the medium category.