Bringing “Field Classes” to Farmers

In Dak Lak, the SACCR Project focuses on supporting nearly 6,000 farming households in 11 communes in 4 districts of Ea H'leo, Ea Kar, Krong Pac and Cu M'gar to improve production capacity to adapt to climate change. In particular, the "Farmer Field School" (FFS) method is considered a new and very dynamic approach, bringing high efficiency in training and coaching for farmers. And the person who brought the FFS method to farmers is agricultural expert Bui Van Minh.

According to Mr. Bui Van Minh, the FFS method was born in 1989 and has been implemented in more than 90 countries and territories with about 20 million farmers participating. In Vietnam, FFS programs began to be implemented from 1992 to 1996 with the support of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). However, the implementation of the FFS method by units and localities is still not in line with the nature of "Field Classroom", meaning that training for farmers still takes place mainly in halls (villages, hamlets, communes...) and is heavy on theory.

Mr. Bui Van Minh talks with Dak Lak farmers at a training class using the FFS method.

Faced with that situation, Mr. Bui Van Minh was determined to bring the true “Field School” into training activities for farmers within the framework of the SACCR Project. Through the training of trainers (TOT) courses sponsored by the SACCR Project, Mr. Bui Van Minh directly “breathed life” into the FFS into the technical staff of the province and districts in the project area, and since then, hundreds of “Field School” have been deployed, helping farmers effectively apply the knowledge they have been trained in to actual production. Mr. Minh said that in the world , FFS is also known as “classroom without walls” and farmers participate in learning mainly by “discovery”, the class also does not have “lecturers” but only “facilitators” whose job is to guide learners to find “problems” in farming and ways to solve them in accordance with local conditions.

It is known that the SACCR Project in Dak Lak has established 234 farmer groups to participate in FFS classes on land management, biomass and climate change adaptation agriculture.

Mr. Y Ly Hwing, an officer of Dak Lak Agricultural Extension Center, after participating in TOT classes on FFS and directly training farmers using this method, shared that training classes using the FFS method are more vivid, helping farmers visualize and grasp knowledge more easily when illustrated with real-life gardening. That also makes farmers very excited to participate.

Source: https://baodaklak.vn/kinh-te/202505/mang-lop-hoc-dong-ruong-den-voi-nong-dan-c182128/