The J. Wayne Reitz Seminar Series in Food and Resource Economics
and the UF School of Forest Resources and Conservation
are pleased to present:
Innovative Extension Approaches: Assessing the Effectiveness of Farmer to Farmer Dissemination and Volunteer Farmer Trainers in Kenya
By Dr. Steve Franzel
Principal Agricultural Economist, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), Nairobi, Kenya
Friday, December 10, 2010
10:40 AM – 11:30 AM
Newins-Ziegler room #376
Open to the public
Abstract: Since the decline of government sponsored extension systems during the l980s and 1990s, little attention has been given to extension services. This is particularly a problem for agroforestry practices because they are knowledge-intensive, requiring skills that most farmers lack such as raising seedlings or harvesting tree seed. How to facilitate the spread of innovations and how to help farmers access outside information are key challenges for improving livelihoods. This presentation reviews ICRAF’s recent research on extension approaches in East Africa and, in particular, on farmer-to-farmer dissemination and volunteer farmer trainers. The research shows that farmer to farmer dissemination is pervasive but surprisingly, only a few farmers are responsible for most of the spread of new practices. Extension programs frequently use "model" farmers, "master farmers" and "contact farmers" but such farmers are almost always selected on the basis of their farming expertise. Research has found that expert farmers are often not good communicators or trainers and that extension programs would likely be better off working with farmers who have strong social networking and communication skills. We have also found that farmer trainers were able to cover some of their training costs by selling goods and services to the farmers they were training. Assisting them to start such enterprises is critical for sustaining their interest in training.
Biographical sketch: Steve Franzel is Principal Agricultural Economist, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF), and leads the Centre’s global research program on Improving the Marketing of Tree Products for Smallholders. He has worked for ICRAF for the last 19 years, 13 years at its headquarters in Nairobi and the last 6 years based in Orlando, Florida. Previously, he worked for the World Bank Agricultural Development Service in Ethiopia, for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT) in Kenya, and as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Cameroon. Steve’s main research interests are smallholder farming systems, agroforestry, natural resources management, adoption and dissemination of innovations, marketing and enterprise development, and participatory research. Steve has an MSc and PhD in Agricultural Economics from Michigan State University and a BA in Economics from Cornell University.
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