Story Loes Witteveen
All images courtesy of Loes Witteveen
The professorship Communication, Participation and Social-Ecological Learning (CoPSEL) of van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences (HVHL) has been active for several years in the Enrekang district of Sulawesi, Indonesia. The local government, district offices of agriculture, environment, livestock and disaster management, UNIMEN university and farmer groups, who are all members of the Living Lab Enrekang, collaborate with CoPSEL in the design and development of a Digital Farmer Field School (DFFS). They opted for a Living Lab partnership to synchronise the different governmental rural service providers’ efforts to improve farmers’ access to information, communication, and extension for sustainable food production and environmental protection through the design and development of DFFS.
The DFFS is designed as an Android-based learning platform installed on a tablet and used by farmer groups and extension officers as an alternative to conventional extension services. During the Corona Lock Down, Professor Loes Witteveen collaborated with HVHL-alumnus Nurdahalia Lairing and CoPSEL colleagues to implement the training Local Capacity Building in the Design and Development of Digital Farmer Field School (DFFS), a knowledge-sharing platform for a sustainable rural economy in Enrekang, South Sulawesi with the support of NUFFIC NESO. A recent visit by HVHL took place in late 2022 to further train developers and users in the use of DFFS.
Serious game
The integrated and digital approach to the rural economy and environmental issues for rural communities and farmer groups is a new experience for developers and users. During a recent work visit, the online training was complemented with workshops on the campus of UNIMEN, the local university. The workshops focused on collaboration in the Enrekang living lab for diverse functions such as content production and the back office. Using a serious game, back-office management was trained to develop responsiveness in dealing with questions and data from the farmer groups. Systematic integration of an environmental perspective, a challenge for the conventional agriculture extension system, was also on the agenda. In the following days, farmer groups in Baroko and Pekalobean were visited to test the DFFS prototype.
Collaboration with female farmers
The session with a group of women farmers was so successful that they immediately signed up to participate in the 2.0 upgrade of the DFFS. The women were both surprised and pleased that they were able to participate in thinking about a digital design and expressed interest to remain involved in the further development of DFFS based on that expertise and because of their need for information sharing. The issues of deforestation, landslides and pollution from fertiliser use were highlighted during the session. All the information confirmed the qualities and opportunities of the prototype and gave concrete ideas for further design.
Former HVHL student wins FAO Award
As the DFFS Enrekang is the first DFFS in Indonesia, attention is given to the documentation and publication of results.[1] The paper Rural Communication Services in Indonesia. Prototype Testing of Digital Farmer Field School (DFFS) authored by Nurdahlia has recently won the Rural Communication Services (RCS) Research Award FAO and IAMCR in cooperation with CCComDev.[2]
