COST AND BENEFITS OF RUNNING A TEA-BASED FARMER FIELD SCHOOL IN KENYA

The Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA), through its extension workers, has been educating tea producers on good agricultural practices using Farmer Field Schools (FFS). Information on training cost and benefits of running a tea-based FFS in Kenya were not readily available. Such information would enable tea stakeholders to develop a strategy for up-scaling FFS. This study sought to determine and describe the cost and benefits of running a tea-based FFS among small-scale farmers in the Rift Valley. The study used a Cross-Sectional research design to collect data from 514 small-scale tea growers drawn randomly from KTDA factories. A questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.92α was used after validation by extension experts. Face-to-Face interviews and a stakeholders' workshop were used for triangulation purposes. Data were analyzed qualitatively and reported using descriptive statistics. The results indicated that training a farmer in a tea-based FFS in a year costs Ksh 6,076/= (US$71). The training gave farmers skills to improve their tea husbandry, yields, level of empowerment and leadership skills. The researchers concluded that training tea farmers in FFSs was cheap, sustainable and effective in changing their behavior. Stakeholders in the tea-value chain should increase funding and use of FFS in training tea farmers.