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 Sustainable Agriculture Sub- group is one of
the thematic groups of CBFS project and its
major aim is to build the capacities of
farmers in terms of
participatory learning opportunities
on sustainable agricultural systems through
Farmer Field Schools (FFSs). World Concern
Myanmar (WCM) supports technology
backstopping of FFS on Sustainable
Agriculture.
The project adopts cost effective
technologies by investing technical
expertise and financial resources to sustain
the long-term impact
for improved food security and civil
society development.
Building on experiences of a number of the
participating organizations, the project
will initiate and support operation of FFSs
by participating organizations. Farmers are
trained to be researchers and facilitators
during bi-weekly training sessions
throughout the cropping season, and to pass on knowledge
to fellow
farmers in their villages, especially those
in farmer interest groups.
 Departing from the conventional way of
introducing new technology from research to
farmer, farmers should be empowered more in
diagnosing their farming problems as well as
designing potential solutions. FFS promises
this process for creating a sense of
ownership among the farming communities to
diffuse technology effectively. Existing agricultural
extension
activities run
by NGOs could be reinforced by greater
exchange of information and experiences in
farmers'
technology innovation across the country
through the FFS
process under the proposed project.
An extension strategy of Sustainable
Agriculture is based on FFSs using
participatory approaches. Three levels of
FFS are:
• Training of Trainers (TOT) for staff
facilitators,
• Preschool training for
capacity building of
farmer facilitators and
• School sessions for providing
farmer
extension system
 So far, 8 FFS Training of Trainers (TOT) and
6 FFS Pre-schools have been implemented by
partner NGOs during Year I throughout the
country. Two FFS in Southern Shan States
have completed one whole cycle of FFS in one
crop season.
Micro Project Proposals
for FFS can be submitted to the
Project Coordinator of CBFS through
Sub-group Coordinator for Sustainable
Agriculture (SA) by partner organizations
for financial assistance or technical
expertise or both. CBFS also welcomes contribution or sharing of technical
expertise from partners.
This can be realized
by indicating to CBFS Project the available
human resources available and the
willingness to share expertise among
partners.
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