and farmers supported by researchers who are subject matter specialists collaborate to make decisions and to analyze problems, plan solutions, implement activities and evaluate results. Farmers, collaborating with extension agents and researchers, participate in designing, evaluating and adapting proposed agricultural technologies. As this case study shows, the T&V approach has scope to contain a participatory team. The characteristics of this approach are described here (Kumuk and van Crowder, 1996):

• Emphasis in all activities on farmer participation to achieve extension relevance and sustainability; emphasis oriented toward issues and problems, on organizing farmers to participate in developing and disseminating technologies and on assessing farmer problems, needs and resources for proposing farming modifications
• Extension efforts oriented toward farming systems and household economy of groups of farmers as opposed to focusing on particular crops or commodities
• Use of both mass media and face-to-face communication, with farmers participating in designing and delivering the message, which is communicated to audiences with similar characteristics
• Strong links established with research, other development efforts in the area and farmers through a team approach that emphasizes consulting and collaborating with farmers
• Emphasis on providing advice, to educate rather than transfer technology, to provide regular in-service training for extension workers and team farmers and to assess the technology by using group activities

When basic elements of the T&V system are maintained, such as regular in-service training and an improved researchto- extension link, and when the extension team approach is introduced in towns and villages, the resulting extension system should be better suited to the needs of Turkish farmers, giving them an active role in generating, evaluating and diffusing technology. The design of such a system will require harmonizing T&V with the existing system and using a participatory team approach to extension.

During the project life, extension expenditures increased eightfold. In the project area, the extension cost per farmer was 27% higher than the national average and the expenditure per extension worker was about 28% higher. Project costs were associated with increases in extension staff, increases in coverage and intensity of extension activities and increases in operational and training costs. The impact was impressive: about 65% of the 85,300 farmers in the area were in direct contact with extension through the various field activities. In production increases, wheat increased 76%, barley 64%, rice 86%, cow milk 65% and goat milk 128%. Overall, agricultural productivity in the project area, measured by the value of the agricultural domestic product in the two provinces, increased 11-fold. While other factors undoubtedly contributed to this increase, improved extension was a major factor.

For the further improvement of TYUAP, a new program called TAYEK (Agricultural Research, Extension and Training Coordination) was organized and applied to better coordinate all sectors and stakeholders of agriculture, facilitating technology transfer for development. TAYEK also

includes the farmer field school (FFS) approach. The collaboration with TYUAP and further with TAYEK was helpful for the public and for raising local awareness about in situ and on-farm conservation of genetic and plant diversity in Turkey.

2.5.1.2 Farmer field schools

Farmer field schools (FFS) have become an innovative, participatory and interactive model for educating farmers in Asia, many parts of Africa, Latin America and more recently in the Middle East, North Africa and Eastern and Central Europe. The approach was originally developed to help farmers tailor integrated pest management (IPM) practices in diverse and dynamic ecological conditions. The knowledge acquired as they learn enables farmers to adapt current technologies or to test and adopt new technologies to be more productive, profitable and responsive to changing conditions.

Farm field schools in IPM started in 1989 in Indonesia to reduce farmer reliance on pesticides in rice. Policy makers and donors were impressed with the results, and the program rapidly expanded. The experience generated in Asia was used to help initiate IPM FFS programs in other parts of the world. New commodities were added and these programs were encouraged to adapt them locally and institutionalize them. At present, various IPM FFS programs are being conducted in over 30 countries.

In the Near East and North Africa, FFS were first introduced in Egypt in 1996 with two Egyptian-German projects implementing IPM FFS on cucumber, tomato, citrus, mango and cotton. Several modifications were made to adapt to local conditions and the FFS were renamed farmer learning groups. Several other initiatives followed to organize pilot FFS based on the original concepts. In 2003 ICARDA started a regional FFS project in Syria, Iran and Turkey to extend IPM for pest management in wheat and barley. In Kyrgyzstan the FFS approach was introduced in 2003 for cotton. Uzbekistan introduced it through an FAO-supported project on managing irrigated lands that were salt affected and gypsiferous.

A two-year regional IPM project in the Near East started in 2004, funded by the Italian government, to develop a strategy adapted to local ecosystems that would achieve high-quality production in fruits and vegetables compatible with export requirements to target European markets. The project involved Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestinian Territory (Gaza and the West Bank) and Syria. It was expected to establish and strengthen the FFS extension approach to promote IPM technology among Near East farmers.

Another FAO-supported regional project began in 2004 in Algeria, Egypt, Ethiopia, Morocco, Sudan, Syria and Tunisia on training in management of a parasitic weed, orobanche, in leguminous crops (Braun et al., 2006).

2.5.2 Traditional knowledge in CWANA

Traditional knowledge (TK) is a cumulative body of knowledge, know-how and practices maintained and developed by people with extended histories of interaction with the natural environment (ICSU, 2002). It developed from experience gained and adaptations made to the local culture and