Farmers’ Field School Approach

1. History, Origin and Emergence:

The Farmers’ Field School (FFS) approach emerged out of a concrete, immediate problem. At the end of the 80’s of the last century farmers in Indonesia were putting their crops, their health and their environment at severe risk through massive abuse of highly toxic pesticides promoted aggressively by the private industry and government. Pest species were becoming resistant and in some cases resurgent. What was called for was a large-scale decentralized program of education for farmers wherein they become “experts” in managing the ecology of their fields – bringing better yields, fewer problems, increased profits and less risk to their health and environment (Dilts, 2001).