Emissions reduction project, to establish more Farmer Field Schools in Eastern Province
By Gloria Siwisha THE Eastern Province Jurisdictional Sustainable Landscape Programme (EPJ-SLP), a follow-up initiative to the recently concluded ZIFLP, has commenced the process of establishing an additional 200 Farmer Field Schools (FFS), in Eastern Province. This action would subsequently increase the number of FFSs in the region to 678, from the current 478, set up by the Zambia Integrated Forest Landscape Project (ZIFLP). The farmer field schools would act as learning hubs where lead farmers would develop skills, share knowledge, and adopt innovative techniques to improve productivity and resilience, under the guidance of extension officers drawn from the Ministry of Agriculture. Additionally, over 5,000 lead farmers are expected to be recruited, who would in turn be servicing 10 follower farmers each. The goal of the project, is to increase the number of lead farmers from the current 10,755 to 16,960, while that of follower farmers would be increased from 107,550 to 169,500. EPJS...