Farmer OrganizationsFOs: have a defined membership, purpose for assembling and organizational structure, established to support members in pursuing their individual and collective interests.

One "essential function is to organize relations with the external world,” to mediate between members and “…others who act in their economic, institutional, and political environment.” (Haubert and Bey, 1995)

Farmer Organizations differ in terms of their:• scale/character of membership (national federations to local

associations),• function (policy/advocacy, economic/technical, local development),• legal designation (registered Coops vs unregistered

clubs/groups/associations), among other dimensions.

Farmer-to-farmer Extension

• Farmer-to-farmer extension (F2FE) is “the provision of training by farmers to farmers, often through the creation of a structure of farmer trainers” (Scarborough et al., 1997).

• We use the term “farmer trainer” as a generic term for farmers involved in farmer-to-farmer extension, though we recognize that different labels (e.g., lead farmer, community knowledge worker) often have implications for the exact roles and tasks of the farmers involved.

• In some cases, farmer trainers provide services voluntarily. In others, farmers pay them a fee or organizations pay them a stipend or even a salary. When the nature of their relationship with their sponsoring organization or those that they serve becomes contractual, use of more appropriate descriptors, such as “fee- based training” instead of F2FE, may be warranted.