Ortiz O, Garrett K A, Health J J, Orrego R, Nelson R J
International Potato Center (CIP), Apartado 1558, Lima 12, Peru.
Department of Plant Pathology, Kansas State University, Manhattan 66506.
Plant Dis. 2004 May;88(5):565-571. doi: 10.1094/PDIS.2004.88.5.565.
Farmer field school programs incorporating farmer participatory research (FPR-FFS) have the potential to provide important benefits to their participants and to other farmers who benefit from improved cultivars and management techniques. An FPR-FFS program in San Miguel, Cajamarca, Peru, has been in place since 1999 with an emphasis on management of potato late blight, caused by Phytophthora infestans, the most important problem facing Andean potato growers. Farmers' knowledge of late blight was surveyed to determine useful components for the FPR-FFS curriculum. The benefits to participants of FPR-FFS programs were evaluated first by measuring knowledge of late blight management of participants and nonparticipants. Studies of the Peruvian FPR-FFS program indicate that participants are more knowledgeable and that their expertise further increases after an additional year of participation. The benefits to participants can be evaluated more directly by comparing the productivity of participants' farms compared with nonparticipants' farms. For the Peruvian FPR-FFS program, participants had significantly higher average levels of productivity. The benefits of FPR-FFS programs for the development of better cultivars and management techniques can be evaluated indirectly in terms of improved estimates of performance. Estimates of the overall performance of a particular cultivar or technique become more precise as data from more sites are included in calculating the estimate. A more direct evaluation of benefits from FPR-FFS input may be based on the ability of farmers in FPR-FFS programs to eliminate undesirable genotypes and to recommend desirable genotypes based on criteria in addition to those used by breeders.
纳入农民参与式研究的农民田间学校项目（FPR - FFS）有潜力为其参与者以及其他受益于改良品种和管理技术的农民带来重要益处。秘鲁卡哈马卡省圣米格尔的一个FPR - FFS项目自1999年起实施，重点是由致病疫霉引起的马铃薯晚疫病管理，这是安第斯山脉马铃薯种植者面临的最重要问题。对农民关于晚疫病的知识进行了调查，以确定FPR - FFS课程的有用组成部分。首先通过衡量参与者和非参与者对晚疫病管理的知识来评估FPR - FFS项目对参与者的益处。对秘鲁FPR - FFS项目的研究表明，参与者知识更丰富，并且在多参与一年后他们的专业知识进一步增加。通过比较参与者农场与非参与者农场的生产力，可以更直接地评估对参与者的益处。对于秘鲁FPR - FFS项目，参与者的平均生产力水平显著更高。FPR - FFS项目对培育更好品种和管理技术的益处可以根据改进的性能评估间接评估。随着计算评估时纳入更多地点的数据，对特定品种或技术的整体性能评估会变得更加精确。对FPR - FFS投入带来的益处进行更直接的评估可能基于FPR - FFS项目中的农民除了育种者使用的标准之外，根据其他标准消除不良基因型并推荐优良基因型的能力。
