This week in Tanzania the main topic is Farmer Field Schools. This is a method of training that puts the emphasis on farmer knowledge and farmer participation in learning. By definition it also moves the emphasis away from the organization and organization staff. In a sense it sort of levels the playing field. FFS is not new, but we are just starting to try it out. Below is a table based on an experiment run by farmers which compares the traditional flat vegetable production bed to the double dug bed which takes advantage of several ideas to improve production such as closer spacing, use of compost, and natural insect repellants. All of these are low cost measures which even the poorest farmer can use. You can see in the results below that the double dugs outperform the traditional system, and not only is the yield more than twice as much, but the production season is almost twice as long. Again, this is not new in principle, but this is data collected by farmers that actually work with us, and helps both them and us learn more. Maybe for some this is just a boring table, but I think the content is pretty exciting.

SN	Item description	Double dug	Flat bed
1	Area size	1m x 6m	1m x 6m
2	Crop planted	Kale	Kale
3	Fertilizer	Compost	Cattle manure
4	Spacing	23cm x 23cm	34cm x 34cm
5	Number of plants	90	55
6	Plant repellants	applied	NA
7	Rate of pests and diseases infestation	Very low	High
8	Production period	5.5 weeks	3 weeks
9	Production in bunches	105 Bunches	46 Bunches