Discovering the impact of farmer field schools on the adoption of environmental-friendly technology

Excessive use of irrigation and fertilizers aggravates water shortage and challenges environmental sustainability. Although environment friendly technologies save water and fertilizer, yet their adoption rate remains low. One possible reason for this is the lack information about them, which necessitates effective information-delivering agricultural extension modes. Using data from 274 tomato and cucumber farm households in Beijing, this study examined the effect of farmer field schools (FFS) on promoting the adoption of environment friendly irrigation and fertilization technologies. We found evidence that FFS training significantly increases the adoption rate of environment friendly irrigation and fertilization technologies. The results suggest that the FFS program is an effective approach to extend environment friendly irrigation technologies to partially solve the problem of water shortage and nitrate leaching. We propose extending the FFS program to fields other than integrated pest management.