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Key results

Relevance. Extension staff are few yet farming is becoming more knowledge-intensive. VFT programs help organizations reach more farmers and encourage farmers to learn from each other.

Effectiveness. VFTs had trained an average of 54 farmers during the month preceding the survey. Women trained as many farmers as men though within a more limited area.

Gender. The approach empowers women and improves their access to extension. Organizations are able to achieve a 30 percent higher proportion of women among farmer trainers than among their extension staff. But proactive measures are needed for recruiting female farmer trainers, such as targeting women’s groups.

Why become a farmer trainer? Access to knowledge and altruism were the main reasons farmers become farmer trainers (Table 1). Extension providers can make their volunteer farmer trainer programs more effective and sustainable by providing low-cost incentives such as badges, certificates, community recognition and field tours.

Volunteer farmer trainers(VFTs): An effective extension approach for reaching and empowering farmers

Steven Franzel, Evelyne Kiptot, Josephine Kirui (ICRAF) Eija Laitinen and Peter Kuria Githinji (HAMK)

End-users and impact End users include • extension managers, to encourage them to adopt the

approach and good practices in implementing it • policy makers, to help them support the VFT approach • researchers, on how to assess effectiveness of

extension approaches and sustainability Organizations taking up the approach as a result, in part, of our research include 1 African-wide association, 2 government agencies, 2 NGOs, 1 national farmers’ federation and 56 farmer cooperatives serving over 100,000 households in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and Rwanda. ICT tools are needed to reach a wider audience.

Figure 1. Volunteer farmer trainer in Uganda Photo: Pius Lutakome

Significance of the research results Adoption of the VFT approach and good practices in implementing it helps • development organizations to reach more farmers • to empower farmers as change agents • to empower women, as long as organizations make

efforts to recruit more women as farmer trainers. Dissemination of our results has helped lead to an increased profile for the VFT approach in global debates as evidenced by - its uptake by the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services in its 2015 Addis Ababa Declaration, - reports on our results in

- the FAO 2014 State of Food and Agriculture Report,

- the 2014 CGIAR Report on Consortium Research Projects and in

- an article in the Manchester Guardian (UK).

Table 1. Motivations for farmers to become and remain farmer trainers, East Africa Dairy Development Project, Kenya (N=99)