Farmer-To-Farmer Extension: A Low-Cost Approach for Promoting Climate-Smart Agriculture

Abstract

Many farmers across the tropics are unable to access information on climate-smart agriculture (CSA). This chapter assesses the potential of farmer-to-farmer extension (F2FE) as a low-cost approach for promoting CSA. It is based on surveys of extension program managers and farmer-trainers in Cameroon, Kenya and Malawi who are involved in promoting a wide range of agricultural practices, including CSA. In the F2FE approach, extension programs provide education for farmer-trainers, who in turn educate other farmers, typically 17–37 per year. Extension program managers find this approach to be effective in boosting their ability to reach large numbers of farmers. Compared to extension programs that provide direct training to groups of farmers, F2FE reduces the cost per farmer trained by over half. There are also important gender benefits, especially when extension programs making special efforts to recruit female farmer-trainers. Many questions still remain, however, about F2FE’s suitability for promoting CSA. F2FE is less appropriate for complex and high-risk technologies, including certain CSA practices, and it can be difficult in areas of low population density. More research is needed comparing whether F2FE or a more conventional extension approach is better equipped to cope with changing weather and increased weather risks. Long-term randomized controlled trials could be used to answer these questions, though such studies require considerable time and expense. Certain proxy questions to assess the relevance of F2FE to CSA could be answered more easily, such as whether farmers prefer to discuss farming risks with farmer-trainers rather than with extension agents.