Interaction

The Farmer Field School (FFS) approach is based on adult education principle and usually knowledgeintensive, season-long program where farmers meet weekly to learn and to experiment on a given topic. The first Field School was established in 1989 in Central Java during the pilot phase of the FAO-assisted National IPM Program. After its success in South-East Asia, this approach spread to other parts of Asia, Central America and Africa. Sekolah Lapangan is an Indonesian concept meaning Field School (Anandajayasekeram & Devis, 2007). In the FFS model, the facilitator plays strategic role in educating, motivating, and enhancing decision-making capacity of the participant farmers. Effective communication is the hallmark of such a facilitator for generating dialogue among the farmers on issues related to farm and farming. The success of the facilitator is dependent on translating the emerging ideas into practices. This paper aims to examine the nature of communication behavior of IPM facilitators based on the investigation conducted in the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra State in India. The study indicated ‘high ’communication behavior of facilitators for integrated pest management of cotton. Most of the facilitators gathered IPM information through various personal, group and mass media sources. They critically evaluated IPM technology based on their socio-economic background. Besides, they evaluated the IPM technology on agroclimatic conditions, and on the farmers ’field. Further, they processed the IPM information with suitable methods and techniques, and effectively disseminated it through personal and group methods, and mass media among the FFS participants. Considering the effectiveness of FFS approach in agricultural communication, the study recommend that FFS model must be expanded and sustained to encourage farmerled extension, change behavioral domain i.e. knowledge, skill, attitude etc., of the farmers, and enhance their knowledge management and experience sharing capacity.