Farmer Field Schools use intensive adult education and social learning techniques to help farmers grow a healthy crop in a healthy way through developing analytical skills, critical thinking, and new farming techniques. They run throughout the growing season, often with weekly meetings lasting several hours and so demand considerable commitment by participants. Up to now they have been conducted in rural areas where agriculture is the primary activity of families and farmers see benefits in investing time to learn new ways of managing their crops. The approach clearly has relevance for urban producers also, but with households usually having a mix of occupations and competing priorities, will they be willing or able to make the necessary commitment?

To find out, a pilot Urban Field School was recently launched in Lima’s Eastern river valley, an area that combines agricultural lands irrigated by the Rímac river and shanty towns clinging precariously to the surrounding arid hills. A total of 22 producers from the area participated in the first FFS, which used practical and participatory methods as well as theoretical teaching techniques, such as visual aids and handouts. This is conducted by intertwining theory, experimentation, and evaluation.  The methods ensure that time is always dedicated to the inputs, suggestions and shared knowledge of the producers.  “Coming to the practical sessions is very important” commented Victor Cuba, one of the participants. “I’ve read books on [farming techniques] but the practice is very important.”  Furthermore, the FFS also helps agriculturalists to become aware of environmental issues, health problems, market indicators, and crop production issues in their urban environment. 

The weekly FFS sessions and experiments are conducted on the land of a participating producer The main themes that are discussed are land use management, fertilization, use of pesticides and management of insect pests, watering and irrigation techniques, planting techniques, and market access. The last few sessions concentrated on the use of different types of organic fertilizers.  The current experiment is investigating  the nutrient potential of organic fertilizers like cow manure, chicken droppings, guinea pig droppings, compost and humus, using  beetroot as the test crop.   All agriculturalists and facilitators participated in preparing the different treatment plots for the experiment and this helps build trust and commitment among and between producers and facilitators.  

Urban Harvest would like to recognize their investment partners for making all possible.BMZ, CIDA, DFID, IDRC, INIA, World Bank, Comunidad Madrid