Farmer-to-Farmer Extension Approach in Malawi: A Survey of Organizations

To improve smallholder farmers’ access to information, many extension services use farmers to help disseminate information that their fellow farmers can use to help increase agricultural productivity. This extension approach is referred to as “farmer-to-farmer,” and the farmer extension agents are variously referred to as lead farmers, model farmers or extension multipliers, among others. The objective of the study is to characterize and assess the farmer-tofarmer extension approach and its application in Malawi by drawing from the experiences of organizations that employ the approach in their agricultural development programs. It is part of a series of studies being conducted of organizations conducting farmer-to-farmer extension and farmers involved in such programs in Malawi, Kenya and Cameroon.