1. Farmer-to-farmer extension:
a viable option to enhance
agricultural dissemination?
Evidence from Cameroon
Ann Degrande, Sygnola Tsafack, Steven Franzel
and Brent Simpson
World Congress on Agroforestry
Delhi, 10-13 February 2014

2. INTRODUCTION
2

3. Why growing interest in research on extension approaches?
Staggering Production, Declining Resource
Base & Enduring Poverty
Low adoption of agricultural innovations
Ineffective dissemination methods
Underfunded
national agric
extension
services
Effective and low cost ways of
disseminating agricultural innovations
Little knowledge on how farmers access
and spread information and material

4. Why involve Community-Based
organisations in agricultural extension?
• Not all extension
• Not all aspects of
services need to be
extension are pure
organised or executed
public goods
by government agencies
 DECENTRALISATION AND PRIVATISATION
DEMAND-DRIVEN
FEE-FOR-SERVICE
 ORGANISATIONAL
PUBLIC PROVISION
PLURALISM
 EMPOWERMENT
Public sector finance
 PARTICIPATORY
essential in countries with
APPROACHES
many subsistence farmers

5. Sources of information on agroforestry
40
35
% of respondents
30
project village
25
witness village
20
Wide range of sources
of information
15
10
5
Fellow farmers and
farmer groups are
important sources of
information
0
Source of agroforestry information
Source: Degrande et al., 2013. Adoption Survey

6. METHODOLOGY
6

7. Objectives
To characterise and assess farmer-to-farmer
extension approaches in Cameroon and determine
which practices are most effective under varying
circumstances
– Assess experience of different types of extension
services in using F2F extension
– Determine perceived effectiveness of F2F extension
– Determine motivation of lead farmers involved
– Identify benefits and challenges

8. Organisations surveyed
Identified as
potential
151
Contacted
119
Using F2F
47
Selected
31
Interviewed
25
= 53%

9. RESULTS
9

10. Importance of F2F extension in Cameroon
government agricultural extension in
Cameroon (2009 FAO data)
Farmer-to-farmer extension
(study done by ICRAF in 2013)
• Total economic active
population in agriculture:
3,568,000
• Government extension
staff: 1651
1 extension worker for 2161
farmers
• 47 organisations involved with F2F
extension in 7 regions
–
–
–
–
–
60% national/local NGOs
24% international NGOs
16% Farmer Organisations
0% Governmental Organisations
0 % private sector
• 388 lead farmers/farmer trainers;
=> 1/3 women
=> 1 field staff for ± 17 LF
=> 1 LF for:
± 4 groups/communities + indiv farmers
training and advising ± 220 farmers
=> 50% of them do weekly visits

11. Who is lead farmer?
Different names used in F2F
extension
Criteria to select lead farmers
Hard working/role…
Good…
Local
animator, f
acilitator, t
echnician,
Resource
person
24%
Good communicator
Lead
Farmer
32%
Availability
Able to read and write
Interested
Capacity to learn
Contact
farmer
4%
Locally
based
trainer, far
mer trainer
28%
Resident farmer
Model
Farmer
8% Village
Based
Program
Promoter
4%
Past…
Educated
0
5
10
15
Number of organisations
20

12. What are LF
doing?
1. Train farmers
2. Conduct follow-up visits
3. Mobilise communities for
meetings and
demonstrations
4. Provide technical advise
What support
are LF getting?
• Training
– Initial training
– In-service training
– External learning
opportunities
• Extension material:
brochures, posters, leaflets, …
• Inputs for demonstration:
seeds, fertilisers, nursery
material, …
• Transport (29%) and
communication (37%)
• Reimbursement of expenses
incurred to attend meetings
and trainings organised by
organisations

13. Motivation of lead farmers
Main reasons to BECOME
a lead farmer
Main reasons to REMAIN
a lead farmer
According to
organisations
According to
lead farmers
According to
organisations
According to
lead farmers
1. Altruism
1. Early access to
new technology
1. Altruism
2. Job benefits
2. Income
generating
potential
1. Income
generating
potential
2. Job benefits
2. Job benefits
3. Early access to
new technology
3. Early access to
new technology
3. Income
generating
potential
3. Altruism

14. Advantages of F2F extension approach
organisations
Overall performance appreciation : 7.5/10
90
Lead farmers
80
% of responses
70
60
50
40
30
20
Institutional perspective
10
Lead farmer perspective
0
Advantages of F2F approach

15. CONCLUSION &
IMPLICATIONS
15

16. • Lead farmers do a wonderful job, but their role is
not sufficiently known/recognised/supported
• Major challenges:
–
–
–
–
Selecting lead farmers
Motivating lead farmers (financial and non-financial incentives)
Technical and logistical support to lead farmers
Approach is not institutionalised/harmonised; very few
organisations have written guidelines on their F2F extension
approach
– Record keeping and monitoring and evaluation of F2F
– Identifying farmers’ training needs and designing appropriate
training modules and material for lead farmers to use
– Creating synergies with other agricultural advisory services and
notably with government extension services

17. With thanks !
For more information: a.degrande@cgiar.org