Pilot Farmer Field School on Climate Smart Vegetable Growing and Chicken

Rearing

Integration of Climate Change Adaptation/Climate Smart Agriculture into the pilot farmer field school

February - May 2016

Life and Nature project By Yim Soksophors, National Agronomist

Contents 1. Description of the problem 2. Objectives of pilot FFS3. What is Climate Smart Agriculture (CSA)4. Farmer Field School Brief 5. Implementation process of the pilot FFS 6. Immediate outputs from the pilot FFS7. Lessons-learned 8. Next Action

Description of the problem

Climate change and variation

Shortage of water due to prolonged drought, erratic

rainfall, increase in temperature

Soil erosion / soil degradation

Pest infestation on vegetables

Disease outbreak on chicken

Limited technical knowledge of CSA

Limited knowledge and technical skills in climate change adaptation, climate smart agriculture, etc.

Lack of successful example of climate smart agriculture / climate change adaptation

Lack of model farmers in communities

Limited access to good quality

agricultural inputs

Lack of access to tolerant seed, water harvesting and supply systems, etc.

Lack of connection between farmers/producers and input suppliers

Lack of alternative income sources and

workload on women

Lack of appropriate agricultural technologies for women

Time consumption, labour intensive

High cost technology which is not affordable by women / poor families

A climate vulnerability impact assessment and agricultural rapid assessment conducted to collect key problem and priority need (Oct. 2015)

Objectives of the pilot FFS

Objective 1: Improve vegetable and chicken production through farmer field schools.

Objective 2: Increase quantity of vegetable and chicken produced for family consumption and incomes

“Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is defined by FAO. It integrates the three dimensions of sustainable development (economic, social and environmental) by jointly addressing food security and climate challenges.”

What is climate smart agriculture?

Farmer Field School Brief 15-20

members / FFS

> 50% were women

4 FFS3 vegetable FFSs and 1 chicken FFS

Trainers from PDA

Provide some start up inputs / materials

Key activities

Exposure visit, trainings, demonstration/field practice, field day

Implementation process of the pilot FFS

Identification and selection of interested

farmers

Organize village meeting

to introduce FFS

Organize exposure visit for interested

farmers

Organize trainings for

FFS members + setup

demonstration

Provide follow up visit and

advice

Organize field day / final session:

reflection and planning

Provide continuous

support to FFS members

Key topics trained to FFS members

Basic climate change concept Climate tolerant seed selection Climate resilient soil management Water saving techniques / water use efficiency Integrated pest management (IPM)Harvesting & post harvest management

Some basic climate change concept Breed selection (local breed tolerant to local condition)Construction of biosafety fence, mobile cage, Feed & feeding for chicks and chickens Disease prevention and treatment

Immediate outputs from the pilot FFS

Improved farmers’ technical understanding

and CSA application

Gained basic concept of climate change, climate

smart agriculture.

Improved the practices of water saving

technique, climate resilient soil

management, etc.

Reduced external input & Improved

understanding on impact of chemical pesticide on

human health, watershed, etc.

Built capacity of local human resources /

village animal health workers

Village animal health workers advanced

technical understanding through participating in

the FFS

Some FFS members are potential to become

demonstration farmers

Enhanced facilitation and technical skills of

government counterparts and project

extension officers

Government counterparts and project extension

officers have improved their technical

understanding and facilitation skills in CSA-

FFS

Encouraged farmers to set clear action plan /

convert from subsistent farmers to commercial

farmers (e.g. participate in women producer

group…)

Some potential FFS members are interested in the women producer groups. They wanted to

become members to produce vegetables for

market supply

Immediate outputs from the pilot FFS (Cont.…)

Yield increased (increased productivity on the same

arable land)

Increased duration of having vegetables for family

consumption and family’s income

Lessons-learned

• Exposure visit is a good way to motivate farmers to learn and apply new techniques from successful farmers • Working with young farmers is more effective because they have higher

motivation and commitment. In Ratanakiri, the young indigenous farmers can speak Khmer very well. • Field practices and sharing of knowledge and practical experience among FFS

members encourage farmers to learn actively. Top-down approach or using transfer to technology approach does not work well in the FFS. • Group training is not enough, individual follow-up visit and technical advice are

needed for the farmers to apply new innovations. • Good relationships with the indigenous farmers, especially women, is important

to gain confidence and active participation.

Lessons-learned (continued)• Visual training tools such as pictures

and video clips help illiterate farmers to learn very well. • Agricultural materials to be provided

to the FFS members should be delivered in time. This would promote high adoption rate of the technical innovations. • FFS record book provide a lot of

useful information, it must be used regularly to record the whole cycle of the FFS.

Conclusion • The farmers have improved production and yield which is a good result of the pilot FFS. However, the

pilot FFS is just the start of the CSA-FFS. Some climate change adaptation practices were integrated into the training curriculum, but not widely incorporated. However, farmers have gained basic understanding of climate change concept, climate smart agriculture.

• The FFS itself is a mean for farmers to build resilience and adaptation capacity to climate change and variation. The FFS group can also be upgraded to producer group – to become a market oriented group that would make the group functional / sustainable.

• The pilot FFS on vegetable growing started late. It should be started in November – December after rice harvesting. Long term administrative and logistic arrangement delayed the implementation of the pilot FFS. Furthermore, the extreme drought also limited the adoption rate of the FFS members.

• Training / facilitation skill of the FFS trainers was like the top-down approach. limited change is provided to the participants to share their knowledge and practical experience. However, there were some field demonstration conducted that is good FFS training method. Particularly, technical knowledge about climate change concept, climate smart agriculture is needed to be further improved among our extension agents.

Next Action / Recommendation • Continue providing technical follow-up support and technical advice for the FFS members • Select leaders of FFS group. The FFS group needs to be well organized for further development. • Integrate concept of climate change, climate change adaptation, climate smart agriculture, and gender

mainstreaming into all FFS training curriculum. At the same time, make linkage between agriculture / FFS and watershed management.

• Participatory and discovery-based approach: Field trial led by farmers should be conducted to discover technical innovations adaptable to climate change and variation. Students from research and training institutions can also be involved in the trials.

• Provide TOT training for FFS trainers / FFS facilitators to improve their knowledge of climate smart agriculture, climate change concept and facilitation of CSA-FFS.

• Promote further dissemination / diffusion of successful technical innovations from FFS members to non-FFS members.

• To promote vegetable growing, improved water storage and supply systems are necessary. The project’s intervention can be different depending on the site specific.

Next Action / Recommendation (Continued)

• Promote participation of the most vulnerable people in the FFS. For example, the women headed households, families with disabled people, etc.

• Continue building up on the existing FFS groups promote them to become economic oriented group (e.g. producer group for market linkage) with official recognition from local authorities or specialized government institutions. This would make the group sustainable.

• Collect evidence based for mainstreaming CSA-FFS in development plans and/or strategies in the future.

Thank you for your attention!