IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v27y2025i6d10.1007_s10668-023-04444-x.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Learning ecology of IPM/FFS: the impacts of sustainability and health of agroecosystem

Author

Listed:
  • Hadi Veisi

    (Penn State University
    Shahid Beheshti University)

  • Michael S. Carolan

    (Colorado State University)

  • Hassan Esmaeilzadeh

    (Shahid Beheshti University)

  • Sahar B. Toulabi

    (Colorado State University)

Abstract

Farmer field school (FFS)/integrated pest management (IPM) functions as a facilitative mesosystem in Agricultural Innovation Ecosystems, spanning across problems and sectors. It addresses the interface between farmers and the environment, opening new trajectories for sustainable transition and promoting healthy agroecosystems. This paper applies the bioecological model to feed the community capital framework with field evidence of the impacts of two IPM/FFS projects from Iran using participatory approach. The findings demonstrate that farmer field schools (FFSs), through the proximal process, foster reciprocal interactions among farmers, enhancing human capital by unlocking their learning potential through the acquisition of new skills and abilities. Additionally, FFSs encourage the sharing of knowledge and skills among participants, contributing to their overall growth and development. Findings also reveal that the timeline of FFS for the growing season makes networking possible with trainers, researchers, decision-makers, and consumers. Drawing on these results, the bioecological model in a participatory manner can be applied to mapping out the pathway of FFSs’ impacts at various levels toward a healthier and sustainable agroecosystem. By using these insights and results, decision-makers can connect and guide programs for developing micro-agricultural knowledge and innovation systems to foster a sustainability transition in agriculture more realistic.

Suggested Citation

  • Hadi Veisi & Michael S. Carolan & Hassan Esmaeilzadeh & Sahar B. Toulabi, 2025. "Learning ecology of IPM/FFS: the impacts of sustainability and health of agroecosystem," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 27(6), pages 13287-13310, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-023-04444-x
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-04444-x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-023-04444-x
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-023-04444-x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Berkes, Fikret & Folke, Carl, 1992. "A systems perspective on the interrelations between natural, human-made and cultural capital," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 5(1), pages 1-8, March.
    2. Belinda Reyers & Michele-Lee Moore & L. Jamila Haider & Maja Schlüter, 2022. "The contributions of resilience to reshaping sustainable development," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 5(8), pages 657-664, August.
    3. Meynard, Jean-Marc & Jeuffroy, Marie-Hélène & Le Bail, Marianne & Lefèvre, Amélie & Magrini, Marie-Benoit & Michon, Camille, 2017. "Designing coupled innovations for the sustainability transition of agrifood systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 157(C), pages 330-339.
    4. Schindler, Jana & Graef, Frieder & König, Hannes Jochen, 2016. "Participatory impact assessment: Bridging the gap between scientists' theory and farmers' practice," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 38-43.
    5. Miguel A. Altieri & Clara I. Nicholls & Rene Montalba, 2017. "Technological Approaches to Sustainable Agriculture at a Crossroads: An Agroecological Perspective," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(3), pages 1-13, February.
    6. Henk Berg & Suzanne Phillips & Marcel Dicke & Marjon Fredrix, 2020. "Impacts of farmer field schools in the human, social, natural and financial domain: a qualitative review," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(6), pages 1443-1459, December.
    7. Van den Berg, Henk & Jiggins, Janice, 2007. "Investing in Farmers--The Impacts of Farmer Field Schools in Relation to Integrated Pest Management," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 663-686, April.
    8. Chrysanthi Charatsari & Evagelos D. Lioutas & Alex Koutsouris, 2020. "Farmer field schools and the co-creation of knowledge and innovation: the mediating role of social capital," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(4), pages 1139-1154, December.
    9. Michael Carolan & James Hale, 2016. "“Growing” communities with urban agriculture: Generating value above and below ground," Community Development, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(4), pages 530-545, July.
    10. Tripp, Robert & Wijeratne, Mahinda & Piyadasa, V. Hiroshini, 2005. "What should we expect from farmer field schools? A Sri Lanka case study," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 33(10), pages 1705-1720, October.
    11. Pigford, Ashlee-Ann E. & Hickey, Gordon M. & Klerkx, Laurens, 2018. "Beyond agricultural innovation systems? Exploring an agricultural innovation ecosystems approach for niche design and development in sustainability transitions," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 116-121.
    12. Helena Shilomboleni & Renaud De Plaen, 2019. "Scaling up research-for-development innovations in food and agricultural systems," Development in Practice, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(6), pages 723-734, August.
    13. Reed, Mark S. & Fraser, Evan D.G. & Dougill, Andrew J., 2006. "An adaptive learning process for developing and applying sustainability indicators with local communities," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 59(4), pages 406-418, October.
    14. Steven R. McGreevy & Christoph D. D. Rupprecht & Daniel Niles & Arnim Wiek & Michael Carolan & Giorgos Kallis & Kanang Kantamaturapoj & Astrid Mangnus & Petr Jehlička & Oliver Taherzadeh & Marlyne Sah, 2022. "Sustainable agrifood systems for a post-growth world," Nature Sustainability, Nature, vol. 5(12), pages 1011-1017, December.
    15. Deborah Duveskog & Esbern Friis-Hansen & Edward Taylor, 2011. "Farmer Field Schools in Rural Kenya: A Transformative Learning Experience," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 47(10), pages 1529-1544.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Bakker, Teatske & Dugué, Patrick & de Tourdonnet, Stéphane, 2022. "How do farmers change their practices at the farm level after co-design processes in Farmer Field Schools?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 201(C).
    2. Périnelle, Anne & Meynard, Jean-Marc & Scopel, Eric, 2021. "Combining on-farm innovation tracking and participatory prototyping trials to develop legume-based cropping systems in West Africa," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 187(C).
    3. Henk Berg & Suzanne Phillips & Marcel Dicke & Marjon Fredrix, 2020. "Impacts of farmer field schools in the human, social, natural and financial domain: a qualitative review," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(6), pages 1443-1459, December.
    4. Cholez, Celia & Pauly, Olivier & Mahdad, Maral & Mehrabi, Sepide & Giagnocavo, Cynthia & Bijman, Jos, 2023. "Heterogeneity of inter-organizational collaborations in agrifood chain sustainability-oriented innovations," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 212(C).
    5. Kok, Kristiaan P.W. & Klerkx, Laurens, 2023. "Addressing the politics of mission-oriented agricultural innovation systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    6. Stephanie Walton, 2024. "Transforming the food system in ‘unprotected space’: the case of diverse grain networks in England," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 41(3), pages 989-1006, September.
    7. Inga C. Melchior & Jens Newig, 2021. "Governing Transitions towards Sustainable Agriculture—Taking Stock of an Emerging Field of Research," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(2), pages 1-27, January.
    8. Alex Koutsouris, 2012. "Exploring the emerging facilitation and brokerage roles for agricultural extension education," Working Papers 2012-4, Agricultural University of Athens, Department Of Agricultural Economics.
    9. Hoogstra, A.G. & Silvius, J. & de Olde, E.M. & Candel, J.J.L. & Termeer, C.J.A.M. & van Ittersum, M.K. & de Boer, I.J.M., 2024. "The transformative potential of circular agriculture initiatives in the North of the Netherlands," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 214(C).
    10. Hamid El Bilali, 2019. "The Multi-Level Perspective in Research on Sustainability Transitions in Agriculture and Food Systems: A Systematic Review," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-24, April.
    11. Kenny, Ursula & Regan, Áine & Hearne, Dave & O'Meara, Christine, 2021. "Empathising, defining and ideating with the farming community to develop a geotagged photo app for smart devices: A design thinking approach," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 194(C).
    12. Angeon, Valérie & Casagrande, Marion & Navarrete, Mireille & Sabatier, Rodolphe, 2024. "A conceptual framework linking ecosystem services, socio-ecological systems and socio-technical systems to understand the relational and spatial dynamics of the reduction of pesticide use in agrifood ," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 213(C).
    13. Boulestreau, Yann & Peyras, Claire-Lise & Casagrande, Marion & Navarrete, Mireille, 2022. "Tracking down coupled innovations supporting agroecological vegetable crop protection to foster sustainability transition of agrifood systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 196(C).
    14. Corales, Aurora M. & Santos, Royette C. & Banayo, Niño M.C. & Bueno, Crisanta S. & Johnson, David E. & Kato, Yoichiro, 2019. "Dissemination pathways for drought-tolerant rice cultivars: A farmer-participatory evaluation in the Philippines," World Development Perspectives, Elsevier, vol. 15(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Mancini, Francesca & Termorshuizen, Aad J. & Jiggins, Janice L.S. & van Bruggen, Ariena H.C., 2008. "Increasing the environmental and social sustainability of cotton farming through farmer education in Andhra Pradesh, India," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 96(1-3), pages 16-25, March.
    16. Smale, Melinda & Diakite, Lamissa & Sidibe, Amadou & Grum, Mikkel & Jones, Hannah & Traore, Issa Seni & Guindo, Hamidou, 2010. "The impact of participation in Diversity Field Fora on farmer management of millet and sorghum varieties in Mali," Journal of Cooperatives, NCERA-210, vol. 4(1), March.
    17. Satoshi Shimizutani & Shimpei Taguchi & Eiji Yamada & Hiroyuki Yamada, 2021. "The Impact of "Grow to Sell" Agricultural Extension on Smallholder Horticulture Farmers: Evidence from a Market- Oriented Approach in Kenya," Keio-IES Discussion Paper Series 2021-020, Institute for Economics Studies, Keio University.
    18. Jacopo Bonan & Laura Pagani, 2018. "Junior Farmer Field Schools, Agricultural Knowledge and Spillover Effects: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Northern Uganda," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(11), pages 2007-2022, November.
    19. Karen Bayne & Alan Renwick, 2021. "Beyond Sustainable Intensification: Transitioning Primary Sectors through Reconfiguring Land-Use," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-22, March.
    20. Smale, Melinda & Byerlee, Derek & Jayne, Thom S., 2011. "Maize Revolutions in Sub-Saharan Africa," Working Papers 202592, Egerton University, Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:27:y:2025:i:6:d:10.1007_s10668-023-04444-x. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.