ROLE OF FARMER FIELD SCHOOLS IN ENHANCING SKILLS OF FARMING COMMUNITY IN KHYBER PAKHTUNKHWA, PAKISTAN
Amir Khatam*, Sher Muhammad and Ijaz Ashraf**
ABSTRACT
Farmer Field School (FFS) is a capacity building approach, which provides opportunities to farmers of improving various skills through practicing various techniques by themselves. Considering therefore, the importance of this approach, the study was conducted in 2011 to examine the role of FFS in enhancing skills of farming community in the central region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The data were collected through survey method on various aspects from 280 randomly selected farmer respondents. The data collected were analyzed by applying simple descriptive statistics showing means, scores, ranking order and standard deviations. The results show that skills were highly enhanced in st the aspect of nursery raising techniques which was ranked 1 with mean value 3.40 closely followed by timely and balanced use of fertilizers and nd rd using recommended seed rate, which were ranked 2 and 3 with mean value 3.08 and 3.05, respectively. While, skill improvement in plant protection especially in the area of insect pests identification was ranked st 1 with mean value 3.22 closely followed by insect pests control by local nd rd recipes and their mass killing which were ranked 2 and 3 with mean values 3.03 and 2.84, respectively. Likewise, chemical and manual weed st nd control measures were ranked 1 and 2 with mean values 2.99 and 2.97, respectively. Correspondingly, farmers' skills in furrow irrigation was ranked at the top with mean value 3.32 followed by flood, border and basin irrigation techniques with mean values 2.98, 2.85 and 2.76, respectively. Hence, it can be concluded that farmers' skills in all the selected aspects were improved as a result of their participation in FFS' sessions.
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