ESTABLISHMENT OF FFS IN BAHAWALPUR

Summery

National IPM Programme initiated IPM activities in Punjab in 2002 with the financial support of FAO, ADP and EU. At first year in 2002, six FFS were established where 125 farmers were trained. During the following year FToF was initiated where 21 farmers from last years FFS were selected and trained as facilitators and established six number of FFS where 150 farmers were trained. Regarding IPM activities farmers has adopted IPM practices and becomes well aware of management practices and creeping towards sustainable cotton production while using regular field observations and exploiting the already prevalence of natural enemies in best favor of cotton production in a manner that biodiversity must be saved and the environmental hazards those are quickly arising may be minimized while using IPM technology. National IPM Programme has strengthens the capacity of farmers in shape of making farmers organization so that farmers in future may work independently on self help basis as a result of such efforts the KWA comes on scenario and efficiently run six FFS on wheat entirely on self help basis.
The KWA has planned to register the FToF participants and increase his strength and capacity in order to meet future challenges more positively and effectively.
The KWA has organized the farmers since 2003; the registration process was very exhaustive because of some official hurdles. But at last it comes with the name of Kissan Welfare Associaon (KWA) and registered under Joint Stock Companies Act. XXI of 1860 in 2004, with registration No. R-BWP/26, 2003-2004.
At the moment KWA has 21 trained farmer Facilitators those were trained during FToF-2003, at the end of this years IPM activities, the membership is increased as 16 male, 8 females and 5 agricultural graduate trainee facilitators from this year FToF has got membership along with 24 members from FFS and 16 from WOS were also added on KWA membership so a total of 127 trained members of KWA is strength for future activities.

Regarding LOA between KWA, FAO and National IPM Programme, KWA has organized 20 FFS along with two group FFS. During the course of time KWA faces a lot of problems regarding attendance of farmers because of farmers own engagements in field operation as the cotton is the main crop for them to fulfill their life assurance.
Even in few FFS the small number of farmers but they takes keen interest in learning process and benefited from the programme regarding better management of irrigation, fertilizer and use of pesticide and expect good results at the end.
Problems of the farmers vary from place to place based on so many factors and soil condition is one of the important in this regard. Keeping in view the principle of learning by doing farmers was involved in discussing the cotton production problem. This discussion not only helped to estimate the existing level of information of farmers but also brought out the possible trails and field studies.

INTRODUCTION

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)of the United Nations Through National IPM Programme (NAT-IPM), NARC Islamabad have made available to Farmers Welfare Association (KWA) Bahawalpur,Punjab (hereinafter referred to as "Recipient Organization") a financial contribution in the amount of up to Rs. 310,000 (Three hundred ten thousand Pakistani Rupees), in technical support to strengthen the capabilities of farmers in Bahawalpur District of Punjab Province Pakistan for farmer-led IPM in cotton associated with the FAO-ADB Cotton IPM TA (UTF/PAK/089/PAK) from the date 04-06-2004 until end of October 2004.

OBJECTIVE/PURPOSE OF LOA

A total of 500 farmers will be trained while establishing 20 FFS and two group FFS so that at the end the farmers will be able to manage themselves in such a way that they should:
i. GROW HEALTHY CROP
ii. OBSERVE CROP REGULARLY
iii. CONSERVE NATURAL ENEMIES
iv. BECOMES EXPERT
Purpose
a) Range of the activities for which the funds provided by the FAO through National IPM Programme under the agreement shall be used are the following (hereinafter as the "activities"):
1. Conduct 20 Farmer Field School (FFS) on cotton IPM in Bahawalpur district in order to train farmers in cotton management decision making through non-formal education.
2. In addition to the 20 paid FFS, the organization will conduct 2 (two) Group-FFS.
3. Assist the assessment of strengths and weaknesses of the training through Pre and post evaluation of trainees.
4. Conduct biodiversity (AESA) study in all FFS villages.
5. Train and enable farmers to practice better crop management practices for profitable produce.
6. Organize Field Days/Exchange visits to share FFS experiences with one another.

IMPLEMENTATION OF ACTIVITIES.

The farmers Facilitators held a meeting in order to made steps for implementation of the activities, it was decided that the Farmer Facilitators must arrange the FFS in their areas, as the facilitators will be more convenient to arrange the FFS at or near to their residential areas so that it will be feasible for them to reach the FFS sites well on time and introduce the programme to those farmers to whom they are already interacted with. The advocacy meetings were organized with the support of IPM Facilitator. The areas were divided in north and south zones and two more active persons from KWA were assigned to managed and monitor the activities of the zones assigned to them. The sites selected by the facilitators were informed to IPM Facilitators assigned for backstopping and the advocacy meeting were arranged in such a manner that the maximum gathering of farmers were advocated for programme introduction and reasons for the establishment of FFS.
The activities were successfully conducted and concluded on end of October including report writing.

FFS CURRICULUM COVERED DURING THE PERIOD:

LEARNING OBJECTIVE

ACTIVITIES AND SEQUENCES

1. Grow Healthy Crop

Profitability

Participatory Discussion On IPM

Brainstorming & sharing of ideas

Productivity

Agronomical/cultural issues

Special topics/

Environment

Friendly

Effect of hazardous pesticides

Special topics

Maintaining soil fertility

Soil Management

Special topic

Optimize use of Fertilizer

Optimal use of fertilizers

Special Topic

2. Use of CESA for Decision making

Field exercise to know components of CESA like water/environment/temperature

/plant/natural enemies

Discussion about plant physiology/ different growth stages/insect pest & NE/their relationship etc

CESA for IPM & FP plots

Sampling of cotton plant for

Pest infestation & incidence of beneficial

Vegetative growth analysis/ fruiting parts analysis

Tabulation of results/Preparation of charts/Presentation/

Discussion/ decision for crop management

3.Conserve natural Enemies

(Insect zoo)

Correctly identify NE/pest/ different stages of life cycle & feeding habit of NE

What is this?

Brainstorming about the results of insect/natural enemies from CESA

Fix number of pest and beneficial for different periods of time

Petri dish studies

Different stages of NE with different stages of insect/pests

Collection of different stages of NE and pests and their rearing

Choose Environ. Friendly method of pest management

Brian storming

Special Topic

Avoiding pesticides application by using results of CESA/ Insect zoo
Identification of different stages of insects and NE

Experimentation come out of discussion

Increase Biodiversity

Brain storming/Discussion

Special topic

Bio-diversity will be maintain by avoiding /minimizing use of chemical

Redistribution of beneficial from other crops to cotton

4. Farmer as Expert

Continue working in groups

More leadership responsibilities

Less dependency on pesticides people and extension staff while having experience to understand various factors regarding management of inputs ,field observation and hence good capacity to have decision making of their crops especially cotton

Discussion about importance of working in groups

Farmer themselves organize

Pre-test

In order to evaluate the improvement of farmers learning at the end

Positive role of women as a partner

Understand the vulnerability of Women/Children

About pesticide hazards

Brain storming

Special topic

Discussion about

Role of women in FM

Contribution of women in family as a partner

Briefing about

Pesticides hazards to women and children
Important of nutrition
Importance of women health in family

Understand WTO quality standard

Briefing/Brain storming

Awareness

Regarding WTO standards
Contamination of cotton lint

Premium for different grade of cotton according to quality

Quality picking of cotton crop

Brain storming

Awareness

Benefits of quality picking

Post-test

In order to test the farmers training at the end of the season.

NUMBER OF FIELD ACTIVITIES DURING THE PERIOD

S.NO	NAME OF FFS	NO. OF CESA	NO.OF INSECT ZOO	SPECIAL TOPICS	GROUP DYNAMICS	NO.OF FARMERS TRAINNED
	Habib Missan	13	17	14	14	19
	44 DB	15	17	18	18	18
	11 BC-A	15	13	9	11	17
	28 BC	15	8	9	6	19
	13 BC	17	9	11	8	25
	Basti Tandar	16	8	12	9	15
	14 BC-A	15	7	6	5	16
	14 BC-B	16	16	16	16	20
	13 BC-A	16	7	8	12	16
	340 HR	16	8	10	8	30
	11 BC-B	16	8	11	8	19
	26 BC	15	14	14	14	16
	22 BC	16	13	17	17	20
	15 BC-A	16	6	13	7	15
	25 BC	16	10	12	10	19
	Basti Jam Mushtaq	17	17	20	20	19
	15 BC-B	17	9	18	6	22
	Dera Khaqwani	18	9	10	8	20
	Basti Sial	15	16	22	10	16
	11 BC-C	15	12	11	12	19
	Group FFS Habib Missan	12	12	11	8	12
	Group FFS 11 BC	12	13	10	9	12

FIELD DAYS / GRADUATION CEREMONY

Five field days activities were taken place at 25 BC, 28 BC, 13 BC, Habib Missan and 15 BC, where the farmer's shows much interest in sharing of their experiences and in organization of FFS as social organization. The graduation ceremony was held place at Shahoo Channar at 10th of October with graduation ceremony of FToF which was jointly arranged and organized by Nat.IPM, WWF-P and KWA where more then 800 farmers had participated and get certificate on successful completion of FFS activities.

PROBLEMS ENCOUNTERED AND THEIR SOLUTION:

1) At initial stages the less number of farmer participants in FFS was problem and later it was identified that one facilitator at FFS is not enough and it is difficult for him the handle whole FFS group's it was decided and implemented that another fellow facilitator nearby will help the main facilitator.
2) As more number of FFS, it was difficult to concentrate on each FFS regarding backstopping it was decided that the facilitator assigned for backstopping will spend whole day at one FFS. The situation improved somewhat.
3) During initial days at some places the quality of FFS was not good because of less interest of farmers even tried best, so later it was decided to close these FFS and shifted to another places for example the FFS at 24 BC ,17 BC,Basti Pakka Bara replaced at 11 BC-B , 11 BC-C and 13 BC-B respectively.
4) Less number of experiments during the season.
5) Some Farmers Facilitators had selected the places far away from their home localities so they have suffered a lot in sense of expenses from their own pockets.
6) Total number of farmers trained was 406 so the target numbers which were 550 farmers to be trained was not achieved.

Annexture-1: FFS information established by Kissan Welfare Association Bahawalpur

S.NO	Place Of FFS	Day	Time	Facilitators/Co-Facilitators
	15 BC	Sunday	8am to 12pm	M. Ilyas & M.Arshad
	14 BC	Tuesday	8am to 12pm	M.Arshad & M.Ilyas
	13 BC	Sunday	7am to 12pm	M.Nasir Sarwar & M.Idrees
	14 BC-A	Saturday	7am to 12pm	M.Idrees & M.Nasir Sarwar
	15 BC-A	Sunday	830am to 11am	Nazir Ahmad & M.Naveed
	22 BC	Friday	930am to 1am	M.Naveed & Nazir Ahmad
	44 DNB	Saturday	7am to 11am	M.Yaqoob & Abdul Latif
	Habib Misson	Monday	8am to 11am	Abdul Latif & M.Yaqoob
	Basti Haq Nawaz	Sunday	9am to 12pm	M.Shahid & M.Khalid
	13 BC-A	Sunday	4pm to 7pm	M.Khalid & M.Shahid
	Basti Jam Mushtaq	Sunday	8am to 12pm	Haji.Iqbal & Sabir Hussain
	Basti Sial	Friday	8am to 11am	Sabir Hussain & Haji Iqbal
	25 BC	Thursday	8am to 11am	Ammanat Ali & Ahsan
	26 BC	Sunday	730am to 11am	M.Hanif & M.Akhtar
	28 BC	Sunday	5pm to 7pm	M.Akhtar & M.Hanif
	11 BC-A	Sunday	4pm to 7pm	Ahsan Fareed & Amanat Ali
	Basi Tander	Sunday	6am to 9am	Hafiz Imran & M.Ali
	11 BC-C	Sunday	8am to 11am	M.Ibrahim & Hafiz Imran
	HR-340	Friday	9am to 12pm	M.Ali & M.Ibrahim
	11 BC-B	Friday	9am to 12 am	Ch.Bashir Ahmad & M.Naveed
	GFFS Habib Missn	Wednesday	8 am to 12 am	Muhammad Yaqoob Haji Muhammad Iqbal Abdul Latif Haji Muhammad Shafiq Sabir Hussain Muhammad Hussain
	GFFS 11 BC	Wednesday	8 am to 12 am	Muhammad Ali Muhammad Ibrahim Ahsan Fareed Ammanat Ali Muhammad Hanif Muhammad Akhtar

PHOTOGROAPHIC GLIMPSES OF ACTIVITIES