1.2 Detalles de contacto de las personas de referencia e instituciones involucradas en la evaluación y la documentación del Enfoque

Nombre de la(s) institución(es) que facilitaron la documentación/ evaluación del Enfoque si fuera relevante)

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) - Italia

Nombre de la(s) institución(es) que facilitaron la documentación/ evaluación del Enfoque si fuera relevante)

Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (DEZA / COSUDE / DDC / SDC) - Suiza

1.3 Condiciones referidas al uso de datos documentados mediante WOCAT

El compilador y la/s persona(s) de referencia claves aceptan las condiciones acerca del uso de los datos documentados mediante WOCAT :

Sí

1.4 Referencia/s al/los Cuestionario(s) de Tecnologías MST

2.1 Breve descripción del Enfoque

A Farmer Field School (FFS) is a community-based practically-oriented field study programme.

2.2 Descripción detallada del Enfoque MST

Descripción detallada del Enfoque MST:

Aims / objectives: It is usually a time-bound activity (generally one agricultural production cycle), involving a group (commonly 20-30) of farmers, facilitated by agricultural advisors or – increasingly – by other farmers. The FFS provides an opportunity for farmers to learn together, using practical, hands-on methods of discovery-based and participatory learning.

Methods: The methods emphasise observation, discussion, analysis, collective decision-making, presentation and taking appropriate action. Discussion and analysis are important ways to combine local indigenous knowledge with new concepts and bring both into decision-making. The aim is to develop participants’ decision-making and problem solving capacity among farmers. The process builds self-confidence (particularly for women), encourages group control of the process, and builds management and leadership skills. Although FFS are time-bound, many groups formalise their relations and continue study or action projects, including FFS on other subjects, after the FFS learning cycle is completed. The Farmer Field Schools on Integrated Land and Water Management (ILWM) in eastern and central Kenya focus on learning about how to improve management of land and water resources both on individual plot and farm level and within ‘landscapes’ and communal lands; including local watersheds, river-valleys, forested hill-tops, grazing lands, eroded gullies etc. Each FFS group experiments practically on selected SLM practices/ measures. All learning takes place in the field and farmers usually meet once per week at a selected host farm in their locality to monitor their field experiments and to discuss emerging issues. Trained facilitators, usually agricultural advisors, guide farmers in their observation and analysis of what is taking place in the field. Local farmer innovations are identified to feed indigenous knowledge into the FFS process: Innovators visit FFS groups or FFS members visit innovators farms to share their knowledge.

Other important information: The FFS process combined with the promotion of farmer innovation has proven to contribute to strong and cohesive groups that are able to make informed decisions and change cultural and practical behaviour in order to improve their production and land management. The process also builds self-confidence, and empowers especially women to take on leadership roles in the community. The impacts observed of FFS thus have strong biophysical and social dimensions.

2.3 Fotos del Enfoque

2.5 País/ región/ lugares donde el Enfoque fue aplicado

2.7 Tipo de Enfoque

• proyecto/ basado en un programa

2.8 Propósitos/ objetivos principales del Enfoque

The Approach focused mainly on SLM with other activities (community organisational building for collective action and collective storage and marketing of products)

Support farmers’ knowledge levels and decision making capacity in relation to sustainable land and water management Raise farmers’ yields in a sustainable manner and ultimately contribute to increased net farm income Strengthen community organisation and collective efforts

The SLM Approach addressed the following problems: Land degradation, climatic variability and loss of agricultural biodiversity, Farmers focus on their own farms and income and lack of interest for wider watershed / environment

3.1 Partes interesadas involucradas en el Enfoque y sus roles

3.2 Involucramiento de los usuarios locales de tierras/ comunidades locales en las distintas fases del Enfoque

	Involucramiento de los usuarios locales de tierras/ comunidades locales	Especifique quién se involucró y describa las actividades
iniciación/ motivación	interactivo
planificación	interactivo
implementación	interactivo
monitoreo y evaluación	ninguno
Research	ninguno

3.4 La toma de decisiones en la selección de Tecnología(s) MST

Especifique quién decidió la selección de las Tecnología/ Tecnologías a implementarse:

• principalmente usuarios de tierras con el apoyo de especialistas MST

Explique:

Decisions on the method of implementing the SLM Technology were made by mainly by land users supported by SLM specialists

4.1 Construcción de capacidades / capacitación

¿Se proporcionó la capacitación a usuarios de tierras/ otras partes interesadas?

Sí

Especifique quién fue capacitado:

• usuarios de tierras
• personal de campo/ consejeros

Forma de capacitación:

• de agricultor a agricultor
• cursos

Temas avanzados:

Agricultural advisors were trained in the FFS approach and in ILWM topics through a total of four weeks of training. Farmers were trained in FFS through season-long FFS learning where farmers meet at a host-farm weekly to carry study activities.

4.2 Servicio de asesoría

¿Los usuarios de tierras tienen acceso a un servicio de asesoría?

Sí

Especifique si servicio proporcionado se realizó:

• en los campos de los usuarios de tierras

Describa/ comentarios:

Name of method used for advisory service: Participatory extension; Participatory extension with season-long regular interaction between farmers and agricultural advisors. At a later stage also strong farmer-to-farmer extension

The approach requires an attitude shift among agricultural extension workers to become more client-orientated.

4.5 Investigación

¿La investigación formó parte del Enfoque?

Sí

5.1 Presupuesto anual para el componente MST del Enfoque

Si no se conoce el presupuesto anual preciso, indique el rango:

• 100,000-1,000,000

Comentarios (ej. fuentes principales de financiamiento/ donantes principales):

Approach costs were met by the following donors: international: 60.0%; government: 20.0%; local community / land user(s): 20.0%

5.3 Subsidios para insumos específicos (incluyendo mano de obra)

Si la mano de obra de usuarios de tierras fue un insumo sustancial, ¿fue:

• voluntario?

5.4 Crédito

¿Se proporcionó crédito bajo el Enfoque para actividades MST?

No

6.1 Impactos del Enfoque

6.2 Motivación principal del usuario de la tierra para implementar MST

6.3 Sostenibilidad de las actividades del Enfoque

¿Pueden los usuarios de tierras sostener lo que se implementó mediante el Enfoque (sin apoyo externo)?

• sí

Si respondió que sí, describa cómo:

Graduated FFS groups have organised themselves into a network and farmer organisations that have taken on collective activities following the end of the initial project. In some cases this has included starting up self-financed new FFS groups.

6.4 Fortalezas/ ventajas del Enfoque

Fuerzas/ ventajas/ oportunidades desde la perspectiva del compilador o de otra persona de referencia clave
The collective action created in communities to deal with and manage their own resources.
Improved capacity of farmers for problem solving and innovation in ISWM.

6.5 Debilidades/ desventajas del Enfoque y formas de sobreponerse a ellos

Debilidades/ desventajas/ riesgos desde la perspectiva del compilador o de otra persona de referencia clave	¿Cómo sobreponerse a ellas?
A top-down and patronising attitude towards farmers are common among agricultural staff and experts, which prevents equal and trustful relationships	Institutionalisation of participatory extension is thus needed with a change in mindset among government and other agricultural support staff.
The various government bodies and ministries responsible for land and water issue often operate individually without strong synergie	A stronger collaboration is needed between ministries especially Ministry of Water and Ministry of Agriculture in order to deal effectively with land and water aspects in an integrated manner.

7.1 Métodos/ fuentes de información

7.2 Referencias a publicaciones disponibles

Título, autor, año, ISBN:

Duveskog D. 2001. Adapted from A Study Guide for Farmer Field Schools: Water Harvesting and Soil Moisture Retention.FAO-IIRR. 2006. Discovery-based Learning on Land and Water Management: Practical Guide for Farmer Field Schools.