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mentary approaches such as extension campaigns, farmer field schools or information and communication technology (ICT) approaches.
Finally, more research is needed on whether F2FE is effective for promoting
CSA. For example, it would be useful to compare F2FE with more conventional
extension approaches (e.g., extension staff working directly with farmer groups) in
their ability to cope with changes in weather (e.g., rising temperatures over time)
and increased weather risks (e.g., a rising probability of drought). Such research
questions are extremely difficult and expensive to answer as they would require
randomized controlled trials in which researchers compare the adoption of CSA
technologies in villages that have farmer-trainers with those that do not. Villages
with farmer-trainers would have to be located at considerable distance from those
without in order to prevent “leakage” of the training information from one village to
the other. Such research studies would likely require large samples (several thousand farmers) to ensure statistically valid findings and would take several years to
conduct. Both quantitative and qualitative assessments would be needed.
But certain proxy questions for assessing the relevance of F2FE to CSA could be
answered more easily, such as whether farmers prefer—and are more willing—to
discuss their farming risks and risk responses with farmer-trainers rather than with
extension agents. One could also test whether farmer-trainers are more skilled at
recognizing the weather risks characterizing their agro-ecologies compared to
extension agents, who are often less likely to have extensive experience in the particular region. Given that so many extension services already use F2FE, it would
also be useful to assess more generic questions about how to improve its effectiveness, such as how to choose farmer-trainers, how to train and motivate them, and
how to ensure the sustainability of the program.
References
CIAT, BFS/USAID (2016) Climate-smart agriculture in Senegal. CSA country profiles for Africa
series. International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Bureau for Food Security, United
States Agency for International Development (BFS/USAID), Washington, DC
Degrande A, Benoudji C (2017) L’Agriculture de conservation repensée: contextualiser
l’innovation pour la résilience au Tchad et au Soudan. BRACED Innovation for resilience
case studies
Franzel S, Degrande A, Kiptot E, et al (2015) Farmer-to-farmer extension. Global forum for rural
advisory services good practice notes for extension and advisory services, no. 7. Global Forum
for Rural Advisory Services, Lindau, Switzerland
Franzel S, Sinja J, Simpson B (2014) Farmer-to-farmer extension in Kenya: the perspectives of
organizations using the approach. ICRAF Working Paper no. 181. World Agroforestry Centre,
Nairoibi. http://www.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/publications/PDFs/WP14380.PDF
GFRAS (2014) Gender equality in rural advisory services. Global Forum for Rural Advisory
Services (GFRAS) brief no. 2. Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services, Lindau,
Switzerland
Goodman LA (1961) Snowball sampling. Ann Math Stat 32:148–170
S. Franzel et al.
mentary approaches such as extension campaigns, farmer field schools or information and communication technology (ICT) approaches.
Finally, more research is needed on whether F2FE is effective for promoting
CSA. For example, it would be useful to compare F2FE with more conventional
extension approaches (e.g., extension staff working directly with farmer groups) in
their ability to cope with changes in weather (e.g., rising temperatures over time)
and increased weather risks (e.g., a rising probability of drought). Such research
questions are extremely difficult and expensive to answer as they would require
randomized controlled trials in which researchers compare the adoption of CSA
technologies in villages that have farmer-trainers with those that do not. Villages
with farmer-trainers would have to be located at considerable distance from those
without in order to prevent “leakage” of the training information from one village to
the other. Such research studies would likely require large samples (several thousand farmers) to ensure statistically valid findings and would take several years to
conduct. Both quantitative and qualitative assessments would be needed.
But certain proxy questions for assessing the relevance of F2FE to CSA could be
answered more easily, such as whether farmers prefer—and are more willing—to
discuss their farming risks and risk responses with farmer-trainers rather than with
extension agents. One could also test whether farmer-trainers are more skilled at
recognizing the weather risks characterizing their agro-ecologies compared to
extension agents, who are often less likely to have extensive experience in the particular region. Given that so many extension services already use F2FE, it would
also be useful to assess more generic questions about how to improve its effectiveness, such as how to choose farmer-trainers, how to train and motivate them, and
how to ensure the sustainability of the program.
References
CIAT, BFS/USAID (2016) Climate-smart agriculture in Senegal. CSA country profiles for Africa
series. International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Bureau for Food Security, United
States Agency for International Development (BFS/USAID), Washington, DC
Degrande A, Benoudji C (2017) L’Agriculture de conservation repensée: contextualiser
l’innovation pour la résilience au Tchad et au Soudan. BRACED Innovation for resilience
case studies
Franzel S, Degrande A, Kiptot E, et al (2015) Farmer-to-farmer extension. Global forum for rural
advisory services good practice notes for extension and advisory services, no. 7. Global Forum
for Rural Advisory Services, Lindau, Switzerland
Franzel S, Sinja J, Simpson B (2014) Farmer-to-farmer extension in Kenya: the perspectives of
organizations using the approach. ICRAF Working Paper no. 181. World Agroforestry Centre,
Nairoibi. http://www.worldagroforestry.org/downloads/publications/PDFs/WP14380.PDF
GFRAS (2014) Gender equality in rural advisory services. Global Forum for Rural Advisory
Services (GFRAS) brief no. 2. Global Forum for Rural Advisory Services, Lindau,
Switzerland
Goodman LA (1961) Snowball sampling. Ann Math Stat 32:148–170
S. Franzel et al.