This section discusses the history of the farmer field school approach, including origin and emergence, characteristics and evolution of the approach, and the current global status.

Case Studies of Curriculum Review and Operational Lessons From India 

Even after several decades of green revolution, malnutrition continues to be a major development challenge in much of South Asia, and India has a major share of the malnourished people in the region. The nutritional issues in India are complex and therefore require a multifaceted, multidisciplinary solution. One facet of the solution is increasing knowledge about the causes of and solutions to malnutrition at the farm household level through agricultural extension. Disseminating nutrition-sensitive agricultural knowledge is not currently an activity of agricultural extension in India, but there is great potential for integrating it through the well-established network of extension offi cers. For nutrition goals to be integrated into extension, the curricula provided to current and future agricultural extension agents must be revisited. As part of the South Asia Food and Nutrition Security Initiative (SAFANSI), this paper focuses on approaches to incorporating such nutrition content into the agricultural extension curriculum.

Three state agricultural universities in Tamil Nadu, united Andhra Pradesh, and Bihar were used as case studies for the curriculum review. Through these case studies, face-to-face consultations at the national level down to program implementation at the village level have been developed. These include consultative workshops, and a conceptual framework and strategy for incorporating nutrition into extension curriculum development to improve nutrition outcomes. This strategy, detailed in this report, includes opportunities for collaboration from the national level to the community level. Specifi c lessons and follow-up actions are outlined that may be useful for other South Asian countries.

The Case of India’s Agricultural Extension Policy

Many countries have recognized the need to revive agricultural advisory or extension services (the terms are used interchangeably here) as a means of using agriculture as an engine of pro-poor growth; reaching marginalized, poor, and female farmers; and addressing new challenges, such as environmental degradation and climate change. In spite of ample experience with extension reform worldwide, identifying the reform options most likely to make extension more demand-driven remains a major challenge. The concept of demand-driven services implies making extension more responsive to the needs of all farmers, including women and those who are poor and marginalized. It also implies making extension more accountable to farmers and, as a consequence, more effective.

This essay discusses various options for providing and financing agricultural advisory services, which involve the public and private sectors as well as a third sector comprising nongovernmental organizations and farmer-based organizations. We review the market and state failures, and the “community” failures (failures of non-governmental and farmer-based organizations) inherent in existing models of providing and financing agricultural extension services and then outline strategies to address those failures and make extension demand-driven. Then we examine India’s Policy Framework for Agricultural Extension, which has demand-driven extension as one of its major objectives, and review available survey information on the state of extension in India. We conclude that although the framework proposes a wide range of strategies to make agricultural extension demand-driven, it is less specific in addressing the challenges inherent in those strategies. Moreover, it remains unclear whether the strategies proposed in the framework will be able to address one of the major problems identified by farm household surveys: access to agricultural extension.

INGENAES Tip Sheet

In many Latin American countries, coffee is considered one of the top export crops. Many rural families use coffee sales as a significant source of income, and in Honduras coffee production is around 26 percent of the 60 percent of total agricultural production (FAO, 2015). Coffee is an ideal crop for Honduras as there is limited arable land that is suitable for other types of agriculture, and it can be grown in the mountains. However, one of the challenges associated with coffee production is how the income that is generated from the sales is used to benefit the household. This activity sheet explores how income from coffee sales might be used to improve overall family nutrition.

INGENAES Material Informativo

En muchos países latinoamericanos, el café es considerado uno de los principales cultivos de exportación. Muchas familias rurales utilizan las ganancias obtenidas de la venta de café como una fuente importante de ingresos. En Honduras la producción de café se calcula que es el 26% del 60% de la producción agrícola total (FAO, 2015). El café es un cultivo ideal para Honduras, ya que existen pocas tierras arables adecuadas para otros tipos de agricultura y además, se puede cultivar en las montañas. Sin embargo, uno de los retos asociados con la producción de café es la distribución del ingreso generado por la venta del café y como este, se utiliza para beneficio del hogar. 

Esta hoja de actividades explora cómo los ingresos de la venta de café pueden ser utilizados para mejorar la nutrición de la familia. 

INGENAES Info Sheet

In many Latin American countries, diets are based around “basic grains” – corn and beans. Many rural poor families depend on basic grains for their survival, and they are considered the most important crops to the social and economic life of Hondurans. Corn and beans represent twelve percent of the agricultural GDP and generate about 300,000 permanent jobs in Honduras (www.hondurasnews.com/basic-grains-crops-good). However, with climate change and poor farming practices, many families do not grow enough of these crops for their household needs and other nutritional needs are not met due to an overemphasis on these two food sources.

INGENAES Material Informativo

En muchos países de América Latina, las dietas se basan en "granos básicos" - maíz y frijoles. Muchas familias de los sectores rurales dependen de los granos básicos para solventar sus necesidades alimentarias. En Honduras los granos básicos desempeñan un importante rol en el aspecto social y económico. El maíz y los frijoles representan el 12% del PIB agrícola y generan cerca de 300.000 empleos permanentes en Honduras. Sin embargo, debido a factores como el cambio climático y en algunos casos inadecuadas prácticas agrícolas, la productividad de estos cultivos es baja y no suple las necesidades alimentarias y nutricionales del hogar.

INGENAES Tip Sheet

Nutrition is important in everyone’s lives, but what good nutrition specifically means may mean different things to different members of a community or family. Women may be the ones who prepare food, but they often have less influence on household decisions including what foods they prepare. It is important to include men in discussions as they may be making production, marketing or purchasing decisions. When men understand the contribution they can make, they can take action to improve family nutrition.

INGENAES Technical Note

Aflatoxins play an important role in household health and nutrition. 

Aflatoxins are fungal toxins produced by Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Aspergillus is a common form of mold that can colonize and contaminate food before harvest or during storage, especially following a drought or prolonged exposure to a high-humidity environment. 

Aflatoxin exposure in children can lead to stunted growth, developmental delays, and issues with immune suppression and increased susceptibility to infectious disease. Longer-term exposure to aflatoxins increases the risk for liver and gallbladder cancer. Factors that increase the risk of aflatoxicosis include limited amounts of food, environmental conditions that favor mold growth on food, and limited regulation and oversight for aflatoxin monitoring and control. 

INGENAES Info Sheet

A variety of foods from the different food groups need to be consumed on a daily basis to provide the body with energy, protect the body, and to help build the body. The purpose of the “How Different Foods Help” tip sheet is to encourage you to promote eating different foods, also called balanced meals or dietary diversity, on a daily basis to the people you meet and work with.

INGENAES Info Sheet

Even though many smallholder farmers around the world have been able to increase production and earn higher incomes from farming, what families eat and their nutritional status has not necessarily improved. People may not realize it, but some may suffer as a result of poor nutrition.

INGENAES Info Sheet

Food provides essential nutrients to help one perform daily activities, to support growth, to maintain energy, and to keep one healthy. The purpose of the “Basics of Nutrition” fact sheet is to provide an overview of the nutrients that people need to consume on a daily basis.

INGENAES Info Sheet

Families need to eat certain foods to help them stay strong, healthy, productive and smart. One important nutrient that some foods provide is vitamin A. When you don’t get enough vitamin A from the foods you eat, you have trouble seeing at night and other vision problems, and you may become more vulnerable to other illnesses, such as diarrhea and measles. Children and pregnant women especially need vitamin A, and if they don’t get it their health can be negatively affected forever, leaving them vulnerable to blindness and other life threatening diseases.

INGENAES Activity Sheet

Women and men are likely to have different objectives for participating in agricultural value chains, and different abilities to access and use new technologies and information. Understanding these differences in terms of gender-based opportunities and constraints around decision-making, access and control of resources, and women's ability to engage in horizontal (e.g. producer groups) and vertical (e.g. with input suppliers and buyers) relationships along value chains is critical to developing effective agricultural value chains. By understanding the gender and nutrition dimensions along the value chain, and increasing women’s control of income generated from agricultural production, food security and family nutrition have been shown to increase.

INGENAES Activity Sheet

Girls and women often have unequal status in a household which can have negative long-term outcomes. The effects of inequalities in terms of individual health and well-being are well documented. The consequences of poor nutrition include low birth weights, child and maternal mortality, disease, decreased work production, and poor classroom performance. Increasing nutritional awareness when planning, facilitating, and evaluating extension programs is essential for the long-term health benefits not only for women and girls, but also for all family members.