Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats

for farmer education and action research within the context of SRI LMB project and way forward for

next year’s workFAO presentation for Regional Review and

Planning WorkshopSiem Reap, Cambodia

2-3 June 2015

FAO Asia Regional IPM/PRR Member Countries

Bhutan

India

Sri Lanka

Strengths Building on existing networks of FAO regional and national IPM

programmes

• Access to governments, communities and farmers through the regional and national IPM programmes facilitated the implementation of farmer education and action research

• Experienced PMU/LMU Coordinators and National Training Experts facilitated the design and coordinated the implementation of training activities curr & and mats; Natl Coords

• Trained local Extension Workers and Farmer Trainers contributed to implementation of the project and facilitated farmer education and action research

Strengths Adaption of participatory methods & approaches for farmer training and research

• Farmers (many women), particularly those farming in rainfed production systems, have a keen interest in learning about better and more efficient rice production possible engagement in post FFS; Self-help groups

• The decision to implement different SRI practices in larger demonstration plots facilitated farmers’ understanding of how various practices come together and influence rice yields at scale.

• Creative logistical arrangements, e.g., organization of the CFPAR in one venue, allowed participants to share and learn from experiments carried out by other provinces tradeoffs

Weaknesses Design and implementation of farmer education and research

• Originally planned to be Farmer Trainers with facilitation skills, basic technical background on rice production and experimentation – and provide them with more knowledge on SRI. However, given the rainfed production focus of the project, most Farmer Trainers were not FFS alumni. The quality of farmer education and research (FPAR) depended largely on the capabilities of the Farmer Trainers which would have been better if most had been FFS graduates.

Weaknesses Design and implementation of farmer education and research

• The amount of data that farmers had to collect was cumbersome, compromising limited available training time for learning about SRI. Idem ditto, for government facilitators who had to provide backstopping and follow up with Farmer Trainers to ensure the quality of data.

• A large part of the FPAR sessions were used for data collection and discussions on other – equally important- technical content areas were dropped out or crammed into the sessions. This is particularly problematic when having to work with farmers who have not previously been engaged in FFS training.

Opportunities Environment in favor of SRI-LMB project

• Government policies in favour of sustainable intensification of rice production in the face of climate-related environmental changes support the SRI-LMB project objectives

• Trade agreements and opening up of regional markets will require farmers to produce more efficiently as to remain in business; in order for farmers to grow, they will need to learn how to save. The SRI-LMB project can provide lessons for the way forward

• Capturing funding opportunities for climate-smart agriculture could help upscale SRI related training and action research work as initiated by this LMB-SRI project 7200

Threats Environment of the SRI-LMB Project

• Results of experiments affected by delayed planting due to prolonged drought (and or floods)

• Farmer Trainers were trained in a different (dry) season and will conduct FPARs in a different (wet) season with likely different production challenges

Way forwardProject Goal: Enhance rainfed smallholder farmers’ capacity confronting climate change sustainably by applying SRI through Participatory Action Research in order to improve food security, income and occupational health status. • Taking a holistic approach to farmer training curriculum

development and field research beyond - resilience; informed decision making

• Evaluating the performance of Farmer Trainers and re-defining roles and responsibilities

• Strengthen capacity building through Refresher Training for Farmer Trainers to upgrade their knowledge and skills

Way forward

Project Goal: Enhance rainfed smallholder farmers’ capacity confronting climate change sustainably by applying SRI through Participatory Action Research in order to improve food security, income and occupational health status. • Defining what is the “essential” data for farmers to

collect as part of FPAR• Strengthen PMU and LMU implementation capacity for

more effective and timely delivery of project outputs