Book of Abstract (incl. addendum) - IFSA symposium 2012

Workshop 1.1 Knowledge flows in pluralistic research and advisory systems: how do advisors
keep up-to-date and to what extent is their advice evidence-based?
The aim of our paper is to apply the AKAP model toevaluate the impact of agricultural extension
services on the Italian farms.To test the model, a questionnaire to a sample of Italian farms will be
proposed: a set of questions is provided concerning each phase of the sequence. Differences in every
step of the chain are expected, that we intend to connect with possible explicative variables, like farm
socioeconomic characteristics and typology of territories involved. Besides, further information may
originate from an in-depth analysis of the motivation for not consume agricultural extension services
on behalf of farmers. The information so collected will be basis for final consideration and for defining
possible future lines of actions under a normative perspective.
Farmers’ trainers of Gourcy (Burkina Faso) facing the challenge of
adapting their services
Patrice Djamen, Haouv Belem, Michel Havard and Elvis Tangen
African Conservation Tillage Initiative (ACT), Kenya
Patrice.Djamen@act-africa.org
In Burkina Faso, the farmer to farmer extension approach (FTF) is emerging as an alternative for the
improvement of agricultural advisory services in a context marked by the need to better take into
account the diversity and transformation of farmers needs for support.
The objective of this research was to assess the capacity of farmer’s trainers (FT) to adapt their
interventions to their clients’ needs. Profile and service offer of 27 FT in the district of Gourcy
(Burkina Faso) were characterized. Surveys were conducted to 70 producers on their assessment on the
support they received from FT.
FT are major producers, illiterate and with a good social status. Their service offer consists in the
training of other farmers on techniques of water and soil conservation, post harvests, production of
organic manure and agroforestry. These topics are rarely determined by beneficiaries of FT services,
but rather by support organizations (SO) including research, NGOs and development projects who
bring technical and financial backstopping to FT. SO consider FT as a means of rapid dissemination of
innovations, they don’t yet see FT as a channel to capture farmer’s demands. Producers appreciate
positively services delivered by FT, but they also underline the poor capacity of FT to respond to their
requests for new themes. FT are facing difficulty to adapt themselves their service offer because of
their wait-and-see attitude, their low level of education, the unilateralism of their relations with SO and
the unwillingness of their customers to pay for the services they seek.
The FTF can contribute to make up the shortage of public advisory services only if SO and the
State better recognize its potential and find means to facilitate capacity building and wider access of FT
to knowledge. This raises the issue of the profile, status and integration of FT in a pluralistic advisory
framework.
How the French cooperative Terrena identifies, tests and shares the EIF
solutions with its members
Bertrand Pinel
TERRENA, cooperative Agricole, France
Bpinel@terrena.fr
Terrena (www.terrena.fr) is one of the major agricultural cooperatives in France, with 22000 farmers
members, small as well as big farms. Approximately 300 technicians (crop and animal productions)
give advice to the farmers. Besides, the cooperative is highly involved in the food industry (flour,
cattle, pigs, poultry, milk, wine…). Thus, the Advisory Board has shown for a long time interest in the
expectations of society towards farming, in particular the reduction of the use of non- renewable inputs.
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