Socodevi Farmer Field Schools are an inclusive training program in agro-environmental practices and gender equality offered to the families who are members of cooperative enterprises.
Socodevi used the farmer field school model for the first time in West Africa in the early 2000s — and then periodically until 2017 — to train cocoa producers. It was in Latin America, and more specifically in Bolivia, that Socodevi gradually introduced innovations to the traditional farmer field school concept, adding environmental protection and gender equality components to address specific challenges.
To date, the Socodevi Farmer Field School program has been implemented in about ten countries, covering more than 20 different value chains. Building on its experience over recent years, Socodevi wanted to systematize its approach to facilitate the implementation of its innovative field school methodology in new projects. This guide was therefore designed as a “starter set” for future Socodevi Farmer Field School programs.
Address a wide range of issues using innovative approaches.
Encourage the participation of women and youth.
Strengthening skills and reducing inequalities between genders and generations is at the heart of our approach with the Socodevi Farmer Field Schools. We use an agricultural extension methodology that allows adults to apply what they learn directly in their environment while strengthening the leadership of both women and youth.
Creation of a multidisciplinary team
Conducting diagnostics
Identifying learning objectives
Developing content
Recruiting and training facilitators
Creating groups
Implementation
Monitoring, evaluation & optimization
Socodevi Farmer Field Schools aim to significantly increase women’s and youth’s access to technical training and agricultural extension services, raise household incomes, and improve living conditions from a multidimensional perspective by strengthening women’s empowerment within families and enhancing adaptation to climate change.
In the environmental component, beyond integrated pest management addressed by traditional FFS models, Socodevi’s program focuses on issues related to the safe and rational use of chemical inputs, water and soil conservation, as well as climate change adaptation and mitigation. In the gender equality component, several themes are addressed, including awareness of equality between men and women, joint management of the family enterprise, entrepreneurial vision and money management, joint decision-making, assertive communication in the household as an alternative to passive or violent communication, self-esteem, leadership, public speaking, and the sharing of domestic tasks.
Over time, the equal participation of women and men has become one of the program’s essential characteristics. This ratio greatly improves women’s access to agricultural extension and technical training. It also increases men’s participation in gender equality awareness training. Moreover, because the program is designed for men and women from the same family, results show that, in addition to strengthening women’s economic power, it generates a transformation in power dynamics within the household.
