Asian Transformations in Action - Api-fellowships.org

190 COLLAGES OF BETTERMENTregistry in CBDC Bohol. When farmer-partners fromthe Campagao Farmers’ Production and ResearchAssociation (CFPRA) in Bilar received information onthe Plant Variety Protection Act of 2002, they decidedto establish a community registry as the community’sway of asserting its control over and access to seedand other genetic resources (Community BiodiversityDevelopment and Conservation Program 2006).SEARICE has produced three publication formats forits messages. The first is handouts containing technicalmessages for farmers such as, “Enhancing Farmers’Role in Crop Development: Framework Informationfor Participatory Plant Breeding in Farmer FieldSchools.” The second is books and newsletters aboutpolicy issues, such as the SEARICE Review. The last isbooks and booklets summing up field work experiencesfrom the CBDC Program such as A Profile of FarmerBreeders in Bohol, and, Pathways to Participatory FarmerPlant Breeding: Stories and Reflections of the CommunityBiodiversity Development and Conservation Program.Communication methodsThe CBCD Bohol project prioritizes interpersonalcommunication as a method of communication at thecommunity level. This interpersonal communicationconsists of many channels: personal media, 1 specificmedia 2 such as seminars, trainings and exchange visits,as well as printed media and electronic media producedby SEARICE. One finding of the study is that the mosteffective communication method at the communitylevel is when field staff play their own role as personalmedia.The SEARICE information flow model features theinteraction of “sender” (field staff) and “receiver”(farmers) through interpersonal communication. Inthis model, the field staff members have two workingprocesses. The first process is reflection and the secondone is action. To communicate with farmers-partners,SEARICE staff then use a three-way communicationprocess. This model illustrates:1) Feeding, which refers to the source gatheringinformation about the problems, knowledge, attitudes,skills and practices of intended receivers. In practice,feeding is done through baseline surveys, focus groupdiscussions, training needs analyses and pretesting ofmaterials.2) Feed forward which refers to the source planning,packaging and delivering the messages to the receiver(s)through group and interpersonal communication.3) Feedback which refers to source gathering informationabout the receiver’s reactions to the information or thechannels. In practice, feedback is gathered throughmonitoring and evaluation (Mercado 1991).Data from six focus group discussions 3 show thatevery farmer accepted SEARICE as the/a communityorganizer. SEARICE gives a presentation that informsfarmers of PPB/PVS techniques that can minimizefarmer’s production expenses, teaches them to conserveand develop seeds, encourages basic organic farmingrather than conventional farming and empowers themto lobby the Department of Agriculture to supportfarmers’ organizations.Moreover, all the farmers acknowledged thatSEARICE’s role is different from that of governmentagents because the government promotes conventionalfarming while SEARICE promotes organic farming andsustainable agriculture. The Department of Agriculturegives synthetic chemicals to farmers without actuallyinspecting the fields while SEARICE uses ecologicalmaterials and continues to monitor its services.Government agents provide loans but rarely servicesfrom farm technicians.Thus, an important point is that farmer-partnersneed close monitoring in the implementation of newtechnology and other services. They want the techniciansor staff to be hardworking, smiling, friendly, supportiveand approachable. The field staff should, therefore,continue monitoring and know how to train the farmerswell. They should also never give up, even if the farmerpartnersare having difficulty with the new activities.Apart from personal media, SEARICE emphasizesspecific media such as trainings, meetings, policydiscussions, seminars, exchange visits and closemonitoring to communicate with farmer-partners.The communication methods create public spaces forfarmers to share their ideas and thus, claim their rightsand protect the public interests of their communities.The significant attributes in the communicationpatterns of SEARICE—especially at the communitylevel—are smallness of scale, interchange of senderreceiverroles, horizontality of communication anddeinstitutionalization.At the national, regional and international levels,SEARICE uses networking and collaboration with otherfarmers, NGOs and academics. Many activities at theselevels take the form of technical assistance and policydiscussions with different organizations. There has alsobeen the formation of a provincial farmers’ seed network.Asian Transformations in ActionThe Work of the 2006/2007 API Fellows