Developing Integrated Pest Management with Kenyan Farmers: Evaluation of a Pilot Project
1998
Loevinsohn, Michael E. | Meijerink, Gerdien | Salasya, Beatrice
This paper reports on an evaluation of a pilot, participatory IPM project in Kenya, one of the first to adapt the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach, a discovery-based, group learnin g model pioneered in Asia to African conditions. The FFS aims to go beyond the passing of messages to enlarge the concepts and principles that farmers have at their disposal as they manage their agroecosystems. Management options are discussed by the group before being tested in a common "IPM field" and the importance of continuing experimentation after the FFS is repeatedly stressed. The FFS is an example of a "literacy"-oriented participatory initiative, which attempts to build farmers' and communities' capacities to manage resources by s olving problems. The Kenyan FFS also focused on resource management at the level of the individual farmer, although several common property issues are present and may well affect the long-term success of efforts aimed at promoting IPM.
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