THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FARMER FIELD SCHOOLS’ EXTENSION METHODOLOGY IN CONSERVING SOIL AND WATER USING CONTOUR PLOUGHING, UNPLOUGHED STRIPS AND FARM YARD MANURE

Land degradation, characterized by bare ground, wanton destruction of vegetation and poor farming practices, still threatens food production in Africa where poverty and insufficient resources for income generation impacts negatively on the population. The Farmer Field Schools' (FFS) Extension and Non-Farmer Field Schools' (NFFS) Extension Methodologies have been used to teach farmers how to minimize the problem in both Bondo and Rarieda districts of Kenysa through soil and water conservation. However, it is not yet clear whether FFS are more effective than NFFS in enhancing adoption of Contour Farming, Un-ploughed Strips and Farm Yard Manure Application. This study sought answers to this question using a cross-sectional survey design to collect data from 150 FFS-trained and 150 NFFS-trained farmers randomly selected from both districts. Ten extension experts ascertained the questionnaire's content validity whose reliability was 0.85α at 0.05 confidence level. A t-test was used to determine the presence of significant differences between mean scores of FFS-trained and NFFS-trained farmers in adopting the three conservation techniques. The FFS-trained farmers' adoption rate of the three conservation technologies was significantly higher than that of the NFFS-trained farmers. The FFS extension methodology was more effective than the NFFS extension methodologies. Extension providers should consider using the FFS extension methodology more in their daily extension work because it is interactive and more effective than the NFFS.