Research Workshop on Collective Action and Market Access for Smallholders, 2-5 October 2006, Cali, Colombia The emergence of Farmer Field Schools Networks in Eastern Africa James Okoth, Arnoud Braun, Robert Delve, Habakkuk Khamaala, Godrick Khisa, and Julianus Thomas 1 The first Farmer Field School (FFS) Networks emerged in Western Kenya during 2000 as a result of exchange visits and communication between farmers, facilitators, trainers and project staff. Similar networks have subsequently emerged elsewhere in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. These FFS Networks were formed by farmers who graduated from an FFS. The main reason for their formation was that FFS graduates wanted to continue activities generated by the FFS process, build local institutions for FFS implementation, continue with farmer-led FFS and benefit from becoming a larger voice in articulating their demands. The networks are characterized as FFSs clustered in a registered or non-registered association or not-for-profit company. To date, the FFS Networks in Eastern Africa support about 2,000 FFSs with close to 50,000 direct beneficiaries. FFS networks in Eastern Africa have clearly shown how farmers themselves have been able to build bottom-up producer organizations during and after projects ended. Through this process the farmers themselves realize their own empowerment. Their leadership is well organized and as an outcome of passing through the FFS training, the networks are also well structured. This transpires into the networks being empowered to demand for services from private and public agricultural service providers, as well a, input and output market access through group bulking. This self-emergence of FFS networks depicts FFS as an efficient and effective approach to organize and empower farmers. However, mechanisms and strategies for these FFS networks to access national and international markets have not yet been fully developed, and further training and support in business skills is required. Keywords: Farmer Field School, FFS Networks, social capital, empowerment, group marketing, demand-driven service provision, Eastern Africa 1. INTRODUCTION The Farmer Field School (FFS) approach 1 consists of groups of people with a common interest, who get together on a regular basis to study the “how and why” of a particular topic. The topics covered can vary considerably - from integrated pest management, organic agriculture, animal husbandry, and soil husbandry, to income-generating activities such as handicrafts. The FFS is particularly adapted to field studies, where specific practical hands-on management skills and conceptual understanding based on non- formal adult education principles is required. The field is the teacher, and it provides most of the training materials like plants, pests, soil particles and real problems. The FFS curriculum follows the natural cycle of its subject, be it crop, animal, soil, or handicrafts. For example, the cycle may be “seed to seed” or “egg to egg” (Gallagher, 2003). The approach was first introduced in East Africa in 1995 under the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) Special Programme for Food Security in Western Kenya (Braun et al. 2006). Since then, various pilot projects have been implemented in the region using different entry points, e.g. integrated production and pest management, land and water management, self sustainability for refugee communities, integrated 1 See Gallagher (2003) for a more elaborate but short description of the FFS approach.