Sustainable tea production : an assessment of farmer field schools in Kenya

This report presents the results of the KTDA/Lipton Sustainable Agriculture Project. The aim of the KTDA/Lipton Sustainable Agriculture Project is to increase the sustainability of tea production by increasing the rate of adoption of Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) and thereby directly improve profitability. In 2006 the Kenya Tea Development Agency and Lipton started four pilot Farmer Field Schools (FFS). The results of the four pilot FFS are encouraging. Although no quantitative increase in tea production per acre due to the FFS could be observed, overwhelming evidence has been gathered about the increase of knowledge on and implementation of GAPs. This will have short and long-term benefits for smallholders engaged in FFS. Indirect effects of the FFS were better group cohesion and strengthened learning capacities. The pilot suggests that FFS are a more efficient way of extending production management techniques than the traditional extension methodolog