Cotton FFS- an example
Participation
FFS Activities
Agro-eco-system Analysis.
Special Topics.
Group Dynamics.
Farmer Field School History
IPM FFS was developed in Indonesia as the standard approach to the design
and conduct of an FFS. The goal is to present a standard as the basis for
appropriate variation. Familiarity with what might be the standard considered
design will enable one to successfully adapt the FFS approach to other crops.
There have been variations in the standard rice IPM FFS design related to
the number of FFS meetings and number of participants. In both cases the variations
have represented increases. In some countries the number of meetings of the
FFS has been extended to 16 meetings and the number of participants has been
increased to 30. When and FFS is conducted in a crop other than rice, there
are necessarily changes based on the various actors in the typical Agro-eco-system
of that crop (for example plant physiology, insects, etc.). The process of
any FFS should be the same; it is the content that would change as the FFS
is conducted with different crops. The four principles of the IPM FFS should
always be observed:
1-grow a healthy crop;
2-conserve natural enemies;
3-conduct regular field observations;
4-farmers become IPM experts.