Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) in farmer field schools on food security and adaptation to climate change: pilot testing of a framework in Malawi

The farmer field school (FFS) has been promoted as an approach for educating farmers on making adaptive farming decisions. In Malawi, the FFS has been used to enhance food security within the context of adaptation to climate change. Monitoring, evaluation and learning (MEL) extends the learning cycle from the core of the FFS to the project level to facilitate learning and adaptation for improvement of interventions. This study’s objectives were to test the utility of a MEL framework for the FFS, and to explore the effects of the FFS. The framework differentiated between four capital domains. Data were collected from 33 FFS groups at 2–4 years after the start of the FFS, using spider diagramming, focus group discussions, and direct observation. These tools demonstrated their feasibility and acceptability for use by practitioners at the district level and provided cross-verification of results, whereas limitations included the risk of biased results, e.g. due to vested interests of respondents. The MEL methods can be adapted for use in other FFS programmes and other contexts through modification of the framework’s targets or questions. The effects of the FFS were evident for most targets in the human, social and natural domains, whilst effects for some targets in the financial domain were smaller. Effects that were indicative of food security and adaptation to climate change included improvements in adaptive capacity, experimentation, crop cultivation practices, crop diversification, collective actions, food sources and meals, and savings.