Evidencing the Sustainability of Ripple Effect’s Volunteer Farmer Trainer Extension Approach

Ripple Effect US (formally Send a Cow (SAC)) commissioned this study to inform the knowledge gaps around how resourcing, capacity, motivation, and institutional linkages can be mobilized to sustain and incentivize the Volunteer Farmer Trainers (VFTs) community-level service delivery model after donor-funded projects are completed. Ripple Effect’s VFT approach involves building the capacity of selected farmers within project communities to share their knowledge and experience with other farmers, without receiving direct financial payment for their services. The model draws upon research carried out by Ripple Effect Uganda in 2002 and 2009, and on the Farmer Field School approach, which was introduced in the 1980s in Indonesia and has been widely replicated throughout Asia and Africa, with particularly strong support from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). It is accompanied by this brief.

This study was made possible by a grant from the Implementer-Led Design, Evidence, Analysis and Learning (IDEAL) Activity. The IDEAL Small Grants Program is made possible by the generous support and contribution of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).