Mobilization of Farmers

We hire project staff and meet with relevant stakeholders (government representatives, community leaders, and potential local and international partners/donors) to solicit their support and formalize each new FG project. With the help of stakeholders we identify interested farmer groups, lead farmers, and participants, and host orientation workshops prior to pursuing training and extension activities. We contact farmers by working with local government and community leaders and using rural radio to promote TREES and the FGA. This process takes 1-2 months as we vet farmers to ensure that they are truly willing to participate in the program. We prepare our Monitoring and Evaluation process which consistently collects data over the 4-year period. The M&E process consists of collecting information on our farmers through a baseline survey before they start the program, on metrics such as household dietary diversity and food insecurity and resilience (based off of USAID indices), along with measurements of the species diversity, and the number of trees per hectare on FG land.  Lastly, we look into the number of food crops and marketable products our farmers grow. This information is followed up with an annual sample survey of farmers to see how these metrics change over the 4-year FGA.

 

  • Finding farmers who are able to commit to the four-year program

  • Finding appropriate stakeholders/funders

  • Ability to find appropriate staff members to serve as technicians to train farmers

We need to ensure that selection criteria includes a consultation with local leaders to be certain that farmers can dedicate secured, tenured (customary or statutory) land to the project