Farmer Field Schools (FFSs): A Tool Empowering Sustainability and Food Security in Peasant Farming Systems in the Nicaraguan Highlands

Esperanza Arnés,Carlos G H Díaz-Ambrona,Marta Astier,Omar Marín-González

doi:10.3390/su10093020

Esperanza Arnés, Carlos G H Díaz-Ambrona + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/su10093020

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Abstract

Farmer field schools (FFSs) emerged in response to the gap left by the worldwide decline in agricultural extension services. With time, this methodology has been adapted to specific rural contexts to solve problems related to the sustainability of peasant-farming systems. In this study we draw upon empirical data regarding the peasant-farming system in the Nicaraguan highlands to evaluate whether FFSs have helped communities improve the sustainability of their systems and the food security of their residents using socioeconomic, environmental, and food and nutrition security (FNS) indicators. In order to appreciate the long-term impact, we studied three communities where FFSs were implemented eight, five, and three years ago, respectively, and we included participants and nonparticipants from each community. We found that FFSs have a gradual impact, as there are significant differences between participants and nonparticipants, and it is the community that first implemented FFSs that scores highest. The impact of FFSs is broad and long lasting for indicators related to participation, access to basic services, and conservation of natural resources. Finally, this paper provides evidence that FFSs have the potential to empower farmers; however, more attention needs to be paid to critical indicators like production costs and the use of external inputs in order to scale up their potential in the future.

Highlights

Globalization policies and structural adjustments in Latin America have led to cutbacks in classical extension services and have steadily changed the agricultural landscape [1]
The values of most of the indicators (25 out of the 28 indicators) are better for Terrero participants than for the participants from the other communities; the improvement is statistically significant for 13 indicators (Table 4). This confirms the hypothesis that the sustainability and food and nutrition security (FNS) of peasant-farming systems should steadily improve after participation in Farmer field schools (FFSs), which is the objective of such programs
We find that the Terrero participants, who graduated from the FFSs eight years ago, have significantly larger sources of income than Llanitos participants, who graduated five years ago, and Angel 2 participants, who graduated three years ago

Summary

Introduction

Globalization policies and structural adjustments in Latin America have led to cutbacks in classical extension services and have steadily changed the agricultural landscape [1]. Rural communities and nongovernmental organizations have taken over the roles formerly played by researchers and extension specialists with respect to technology transfer and innovation [2] This new scenario called upon international cooperation programs to adopt radical and different methodological approaches, which had to be adapted to local socioeconomic, cultural, and agroecological conditions. They were introduced by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Indonesia in 1989 but rapidly scaled up and were adopted on all continents Their main purpose was to deal with specific problems related to pest control and integrated pest management (i.e., planthopper infestation in irrigation rice), but they were a reaction to rather inefficient “top–down” models of extensionism [5]. This is why FFSs focused on crops and agricultural practices in some regions [6,7], and were more socially oriented in others where they addressed health problems, such as food security [8,9]

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