Impact of farmer field schools on agricultural technology extension-evidence from greenhouse vegetable farms in China

Agricultural extension is a key instrument to bridge the gap between new technologies and farmers. As a popular extension approach, farmer field schools (FFS) usually improve farmers' knowledge and crop productivity. This study aims to quantify the heterogeneous impact of FFS on the cognition and adoption of multiple new agricultural technologies. In this study, we apply Tobit models to estimate the impact of FFS on technology extension regarding farmers' cognition and adoption rates of different technologies, using data collected for 274 tomato and cucumber farm households in Beijing, China. We find that the FFS programmesignificantly increased farmers' cognition and adoption of new agricultural technologies. We also find that the effects of FFS on extension vary in different categories of new technology. Particularly, we find that the extension of facility technologies is difficult, and new varieties are easy to disseminate but difficult to adopt by farmers. We conclude that FFS is an important channel for the extension of new agricultural technologies. At the same time, attention should be paid to the design of the FFS programme, adjusting to the attribute of different technologies.

Automated summary

Agricultural extension, particularly through farmer field schools (FFS), is effective in improving farmers' cognition and adoption of new agricultural technologies. However, the impact of FFS varies across different categories of technologies, with facility technologies being difficult to extend and new varieties being easier to disseminate but harder to adopt by farmers. Adjusting FFS programs to cater to the attributes of different technologies is crucial for successful technology extension.