CARE’s FFBS is a participatory women-focused extension approach that helps farmers to build skills necessary to increase production; access markets and sell at competitive price; collaborate with each other and engage in beneficial and efficient decision making. The program also transforms the status and negotiation of women by providing the support they require to be successful farmers, business people, leaders and agents of change. Evidence shows that participation in the FFBS builds women’s self-confidence and expands their autonomy, reduces gender-based violence and engenders respect from their families and community towards them.
Proposed intervention component:
- To increase smallholder women farmers’ productivity and profitability.
Objective
- The FFBS is unique in its inclusion of community approaches to
visioning & planning, sustainable agriculture, market engagement,
nutrition, gender & performance monitoring.
Key Outputs:
Output 1: Integration: FFBS integrates multiple components including
sustainable agriculture practices, market engagement, gender and
equity, food and nutrition security, group empowerment and M&E
Output 2: Master calendar
• Helps set project expectations and planning in line with the agricultural
calendar
• Helps staff overcome their technical biases
Output 3: Standardized tools
• Helps to simplify things so that ‘everyone’ can use it – including Community
Facilitators who have between 8-12 years of education
• Improves our ability to monitor effectiveness and quality
Output 4: Broad-based community impact
• Developing calendars alongside communities increases ownership
• Demo-plots and social topics engage the entire community
Activities:
The project will work through core approaches to achieve its aims:
Research phase
- Gender diagnostic.
- Market analysis.
- Lobbying and advocacy meetings with government to align FFBS curriculum and program with government priorities.
Program inception
- Establish partnership with other development actors & local government.
- Select and training of facilitators.
- Adaptation of FFBS module based on the research findings.
Running FFBS
- Group mapping/formation.
- Group training according to the program calendar.
- Distribution of seeds.
Meal
- Semi-annual internal monitoring.
- Baseline, mid-term, & endline surveys and annual reviews looking at achievements, challenges and identify areas for improvement.
These activities are part of the Farmers’ Field Business Schools scale up (FFBS)
which is funded by