Community-Based Adaptive Management: Farmer Field Schools (FFS) in West Africa

Data from Human Development Report 2011, UNEP

Expenditure on public health (% of GDP)

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Community-Based Adaptive Management: Farmer Field Schools (FFS) in West Africa

©FAO/William Settle


Presenter

Presentation Notes

Since 2001 FAO has been working in Francophone West Africa in a FFS programme Aiming to help build more productive and resilient agricultural systems in 7 of the poorest countries on the planet Deforestation and unregulated pesticide use are just two of the threats to ecosystem health.

• Approach : 25 years 90+ countries (30 in SSA)

• Small groups, Season-long

• No-risk experimentation • Observations, Debate and

Decisions • Higher rates of adoption

of locally adapted practices

• Platform for future entry and testing by farmers of new ideas

Community-based Education Farmers Field Schools

• Not a replacement for extension systems

• Platform for exchange among existing ‘mosaic’ of actors

©FAO/Olivier Asselin

Presenter

Presentation Notes

Not a replacement for extension systems, but a platform for exchange among existing ‘mosaic’ of actors = partnerships To the extent that governments, communities, farmer organizations and donors value this function, the service provided will be sustained.

• Fundamental challenge is the heterogeneity and extent of agricultural systems

• Adaptation must take place at multiple scales

• FFS is Process-based Focus on the scales at which

management takes place Stakeholder Involvement “Experimentalist” philosophy

• FFS programme must “reinvent” itself in each new context

FFS : an Adaptive Process


Presenter

Presentation Notes

One truly fundamental barrier to progress is the enormous degree of heterogeneity existing across even local scales (rainfall, soil, seeds, markets, access to technical and financial support, etc. In this regard, community-based approaches, like FFS can be successful because it is process based; it focuses on the scale at which management takes place; it demands stakeholder involvement and it has a fundamental, experimental approach = it is an Adaptive Process

• 400 Ha rice 793 farmers (from 2 FFS) • Yields: 2.1 T/ha grew to 5.6 T/ha in two seasons • 66% reduction in chem fertilizer use • Reincorporation of crop residues • 80% reduction in seed use • Profits to farmers equivalent to annual project cost

Malanville, Benin FFS Rice

4,324 households :

1,461 FFS trained (34%)

47,000 liters HHP not sprayed

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Mali Cotton : Pesticide Reductions

Settle, et al 2014 Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

• Linking better to local markets

• Integrating “big data” (FAO/ESA)

• Community resilience assessments (SHARP)

• Community Listeners’ Clubs (Dimitra)

• Agro-forestry

• Monitoring pesticides and impacts (OSU)

• Harvesting Lessons-learned

• “South-south” collaborations

• Policies (all scales)

• Agro-pastoral FS

• Climate Change Adaptation

Current Areas of Innovation/collaboration

©FAO/Letha Tawney

Thanks to: Govt. of the Netherlands, EU, GEF, UNEP Governments and peoples of West Africa

Community-Based Adaptive Management: Farmer Field Schools (FFS) in West Africa

Education

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