Evaluating the impact of farmer field schools

HIGHLIGHTS: Farmer field schools are intensive, season-long programmes where farmers meet regularly to learn new agricultural techniques. But how effective are these training programmes in contributing to agricultural development and farmers’ welfare?In Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, younger farmers and women were more likely to participate in farmer field schools. While in Kenya there was a significant increase in crop production, in Tanzania there was a large increase in agriculture income (Davis et al., 2010).Cotton farmers in China, India and Pakistan used less pesticide and chose those with lower toxicity after a training programme in integrated pest management. In China, participants performed better in terms of both cotton yield and financial gain but there was no economic impact in India. In all three countries, there was no diffusion effect from trained farmers to their neighbours (Pananurak,2010).Rice farmers in Thailand also significantly reduced their use of pesticides after training but there were no significant economic benefits to farmers. A possible reason is that yield gains are usually small in technologically advanced rice production systems and increased productivity effects through better timing of chemical pesticides are small unless there are pest outbreaks (Praneetvatakul and Waibel, 2006).