Many manual and books have been written on participatory approaches, but most of them offer such a wide range of techniques and so many options that only experienced trainers can use them. In 1995, during my assignment in North Albania , I realised that more emphasis was needed on basic skills in Participatory Extension Planning (PEP). So I developed a one-week, on-the-job training of these basic skills. I wrote a Training Manual for it, as well as a Trainers’ Guide.
Since then hundreds of extension workers, mostly in Eastern Europe , but also in Ghana , Zambia and Kyrgyzstan , have been trained with these. The materials have been published by Stoas and distributed among others via CTA and Agromisa. Worldwide over 1000 copies have been sold and the manual has been translated in at least 5 languages: Albania , Romanian, Russian, Spanish and Kyrgyz.
The simple methodology used in the training consists of 6 steps:
- identify problems and opportunities of individual farmers via informal dialogues;
- identify all problems in the farming system via a struc tured group dis cus sion with farmers (make a Problem Tree);
- farmers select the problems which the extension service has to address;
- decide on the content of the extension message, iden ti fy the target group(s), and select the most ap pr opri ate ex ten sion methods;
- make an ex tension plan;
- discuss the proposed plan with the farmers.
In the training most emphasis is on improving the communication- and analytical skills of extension workers. The Trainers’ Guide is simple and concise and enables even relatively inexperienced trainers to provide the training.
Holtland, G . 1997. Basic skills in Participatory Extension Planning . Training manual and Trainers; Guide for an on the job training . Stoas, Wageningen, The Netherlands (40 p.).
Both publications are available via Agromisa, Wageningen ( www.Agromisa.org ) and CTRT.