Farmer learning
Field schools, demonstration plots, peer exchange.
Focus — Education, Knowledge & Human Capability — Agricultural and environmental education
AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve how agricultural and environmental knowledge is learned for the farmers, students, and educators involved.
Why this area
AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
IN CONTEXT.
Farming and environmental knowledge travels best between practitioners. Ideas qualify when learning is practical, situated, and judged by what changes in the field.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Youth & schools
Land, food, and environment in school learning.
Extension
Advice that actually reaches remote producers.
Applied research
Questions farmers asked, answered locally.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where how agricultural and environmental knowledge is learned fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — practices adopted, yield or condition change, or learners reached.
- Explains what the farmers, students, and educators involved do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of how agricultural and environmental knowledge is learned in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier extension and curriculum programmes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the farmers, students, and educators involved, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — learners, plots, or schools in a season.
- A stated measure of success — practices adopted, yield or condition change, or learners reached.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves practice, productivity, and stewardship for the farmers, students, and educators involved.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named school, farmer group, or extension service able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of how agricultural and environmental knowledge is learned in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the farmers, students, and educators involved or the school, farmer group, or extension service.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about agricultural and environmental education with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
AGRICULTURAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about how agricultural and environmental knowledge is learned that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.