Abstract
The impact of the farmer field school approach on small-scale vegetable producers' knowledge and production in Alice, Eastern Cape, South Africa
Highlights
According to Statistics South Africa (StatsSA)’s Community Survey of 2016 (StatsSA, 2016), South Africa has more than two million households involved in agriculture
This study sought to contribute to the thin body of literature concerning the impact of the farmer field schools (FFS) approach in the South African context
The main focus was to determine whether the introduction of FFS-style study groups could be associated with a change in knowledge and production
Summary
According to Statistics South Africa (StatsSA)’s Community Survey of 2016 (StatsSA, 2016), South Africa has more than two million households involved in agriculture. While small-scale producers have numerous needs, it is commonly accepted that agricultural extension is an important one of these. In government’s own view, much of the problem is too few extension officers, inadequate skills amongst extension officers, and inadequate co-ordination between government and private sector extension services From another perspective, which government itself has indirectly acknowledged, is that one of the main problems is the extension methodology, which is dominantly a training and visit approach. This includes the Extension Recovery Programme launched in 2008/09 (Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF), 2013), the Strategic Plan for Smallholder Support (DAFF, 2014), and the National Policy on Extension and Advisory Services (DAFF, 2014). There is no adequate evidence of success of these programmes in strengthening the extension service
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