An Impact Analysis Of Farmer Field School On Pig Breeding

Farmer field school(FFS)was set up by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO).It was an adult education and agricultural extension approach designed to train farmers so as to increase productivity and improve livelihoods.It was first implemented as a means of introducing rice Integrated Pest Management(IPM)in Indonesia in 1989.With the assistance of international projects,farmer field schools have developed rapidly in developing countries such as Asia,Africa and Latin America.In order to fully implement the spirit of "the fundamental way out for agricultural development is the progress of science and technology" proposed by the third plenary session of the 17 th CPC central committee.According to the development of "Environment-friendly Beijing,Culture-enriched Beijing and Technology-empowered Beijing" proposed by Beijing municipal committee and municipal government.In order to solve the problem of popularizing the "last kilometer" of technology,Beijing set up farmer field school as part of the modern agricultural industrial technology system.This paper studies the impact of farmer’s field school training on farmers’ knowledge and technique,production efficiency and production decision.The survey was conducted in five countries of Beijing including Fangshan,Daxing,Pinggu,Tongzhou and Shunyi in 2012.The survey included randomly selected samples with famers interviewed.Based on the survey data,this paper first studied the impact of FFS on increasing famers’ hog breeding knowledge.And then we analyzed the effect of FFS on the productivity of hog breeding.Finally,an probit model was developed to study the impact of FFS on their decision-making of whether stay in the market.The following conclusions are obtained from this paper:(1)Farmers’ knowledge was significantly evaluated by farmer field school training.(2)Feed Conversion Ratio is significantly reduced by farmer field school training,especially when the scale of pig is less than 500.(3)We have no direct observation that would allow us to measure the impact of FFS participation on mortality.(4)The performance of FFS participants was improved significantly on decision-making which helps to stabilize the market.According to the conclusions above,the following suggestions are given:(1)It is beneficial to continue to carry out farmer field schools in Beijing.(2)Farmer field schools can be carried out in other areas,especially in areas where the scale of hog breeding still small.(3)We can also try to carry out farmer field school in other industry.