Farmers’ learning and diffusion of farmer field school’s knowledge: a comparative analysis

TY - CONF

T1 - Farmers’ learning and diffusion of farmer field school’s knowledge

T2 - 22ND EUROPEAN SEMINAR ON EXTENSION AND EDUCATION

AU - Thai, Thi Minh

AU - Hjortsø, Carsten Nico Portefée

PY - 2015

Y1 - 2015

N2 - As farmers field school (FFS) increases in use in agricultural extension and rural development, understanding how FFS-introduced knowledge retained and diffused among participants and their community is needed. This study aimed to investigate how farmers’ learning determines their adoption of the FFS-introduced innovations and how these innovations are communicated among farmers. Results show that farmers’ cognitive ability to adjust, test, and adopt FFS-introduced innovations in combination with farmers attitude towards these innovations and linkages to the social system and dynamics of these linkages determine the process of utilizing the obtained knowledge and its outcomes. Adoption-diffusion of FFS-introduced innovations is a context-dependent interrelated process, strongly influenced by farming and cultural background, social coherence, collective tradition and connections with external actors that construct the social system where the process is embedded in. The implications are relevant both within the fields of agricultural extension and rural development and for the diffusion of innovation theory.

AB - As farmers field school (FFS) increases in use in agricultural extension and rural development, understanding how FFS-introduced knowledge retained and diffused among participants and their community is needed. This study aimed to investigate how farmers’ learning determines their adoption of the FFS-introduced innovations and how these innovations are communicated among farmers. Results show that farmers’ cognitive ability to adjust, test, and adopt FFS-introduced innovations in combination with farmers attitude towards these innovations and linkages to the social system and dynamics of these linkages determine the process of utilizing the obtained knowledge and its outcomes. Adoption-diffusion of FFS-introduced innovations is a context-dependent interrelated process, strongly influenced by farming and cultural background, social coherence, collective tradition and connections with external actors that construct the social system where the process is embedded in. The implications are relevant both within the fields of agricultural extension and rural development and for the diffusion of innovation theory.

M3 - Paper

Y2 - 28 April 2015 through 1 May 2015

ER -