The acceptance and effectiveness of agroforestry education and training will be improved if different stakeholders are included in the curriculum development process. When the Southeast Asian Network for Agroforestry Education (SEANAFE) was established in 1999, the development of agroforestry curriculum was a top priority.
Agroforestry education in Southeast Asia
How the guide was developed
The guide was one of many resources for developing a framework for agroforestry curricula for BSc, Higher Diploma, Mid-level certificate and training 5.
Using the guide
Communities: recognize their role in agro-forestry education and training and increase their interest in participating, especially in practical activities. Compare the framework in the handbook with your agroforestry education situation and see what is missing in your existing work.
Adult learning and participatory curriculum development
Adult learning
For the reflection to be useful for learning, some further input may be needed, and the learner must seek it out, and possibly choose from a wide variety of information to assist in the reflective process. Once this is done, ideas or 'generalizations' can be generated, meaning that the learner will construct new learning, hypotheses or theories that can be tested in reality.
Participatory approaches in curriculum development
How can greater equity, ownership and empowerment be ensured in the curriculum development process. The next chapter shows how it is possible to approach participatory curriculum development in a systematic way.
Participatory curriculum development for agroforestry
The participatory curriculum development cycle
Stakeholder analysis
Importance indicates the priority to be given to a stakeholder's needs and interests in the curriculum development and subsequent training. The stakeholder participation matrix helps the curriculum developer to analyze the appropriate participation of stakeholders in the PCD process.
Situation analysis and training needs assessment
At the organizational level, there are training needs where there are weaknesses in the functioning of the organization itself; they are often difficult to identify. You can record the group's answers on tape and.
Setting the aims and objectives
The results will form the basis for setting goals for the education or training program. Learning objectives are therefore written based on what the students should be able to do after a learning period has taken place.
Planning the curriculum
The most common way to organize curriculum delivery is to draw up a scheme of work. Evaluation procedure: Written exam until the end of the course (weight 50%); reports of field exercises (weight 50%).
Implementing the curriculum
The teacher can increase the likelihood of student recall and understanding by providing demonstrations. The teacher should give support and advice to the students while doing the activity. The teacher should encourage students to have a responsible attitude towards materials, equipment and time.
Evaluation of the curriculum
It is also crucial to involve different stakeholders throughout the evaluation process, as in the case of other phases of the PCD cycle. Curriculum evaluation, as the name suggests, examines 'the values' of the curriculum used, including the content of the learning process (what knowledge is worth acquiring?) and the objectives (what is this program of education and training intended to achieve?). From a broader perspective, it may be necessary for all stakeholders to participate in curriculum revision.
Enough time has to pass in order for the long-term effects to appear rather than the short-term ones. Indicators should be formulated, ideally through a participatory process, outlining how they can be measured and expressed. Adults have different previous experiences and learning needs, so a teacher/facilitator needs to be sensitive to such situations.
A tool for curriculum planning
This guide aims to support agroforestry curriculum development activities in both integrated and specialized programs. Based on the situation analysis and the goals set for the agroforestry education or training, part II of the guide deals with the planning of the curriculum. In some cases, existing courses at other faculties or departments at the institutions can be used.
Overview of the agroforestry curriculum framework
Concepts and principles of agroforestry
This general framework must therefore be adapted to the local situation in which the training and education takes place. The agroforestry curriculum framework, organized into five chapters, discusses the main elements with which an agroforestry learner must be familiar.
Agroforestry systems, practices and technologies
Institutions and policies related to agroforestry
The professional profile
The development of agroforestry also depends on institutions, especially community-based institutions, and on policies. But curriculum developers should keep in mind the interdisciplinary and integrative aspect of agroforestry learning. It is a challenge for the predominantly sector-oriented education system to handle the many dimensions of agroforestry learning.
Concepts and principles of agroforestry
Evolution of agroforestry
To be familiar with definitions of agroforestry and to understand the dynamic nature of common agroforestry definitions, including biological ones. Definitions can be illustrated by analysis of the term agroforestry, based on definitions and discussion of interrelationships between agroforestry components and a functional combination of these. Pictures, slides, video tapes and aerial photos, which e.g. shows regional, national or even local land use changes, problems and different types of forestry systems.
Tree-crops-soil interactions
A series of lecture notes on integrated natural resource management based on experience in the alternatives to slash-and-burn project (forthcoming). Class presentation using AV (transparencies, posters with some photos and slide series, etc.), showing possible tree-crop interaction aboveground (by showing various canopy shapes) and belowground (by showing various root patterns), and also show how to test interactions in the field. A series of lecture notes on integrated natural resource management, based on experience in the alternatives to slash-and-burn project (forthcoming).
Agroforestry and rural livelihood: subsistence production and cash income
A series of lecture notes on integrated natural resource management based on experiences with the alternatives to the slash-and-burn project (forthcoming). http://www.icraf.cgiar.org. Agroforestry and rural livelihoods: subsistence production and cash income (covered in the next section). Proceedings of the Tropical Forestry in the 21st Century (FORTROP 96) International Conference held at Kasetsart University.
Environmental services in agroforestry systems
Understanding the causes and consequences of land use changes at the agricultural level (soil, nutrients, water) and landscape level (carbon stock and greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity, water quantity and quality). The underlying causes of land use change in relation to the activities of farmers and other stakeholders. Class presentation, using AV (transparencies, posters with some photos and slide sets, etc.) showing the impact of land use changes on soil fertility, water quality, etc.
Social and economic considerations of agroforestry
Agroforestry in the landscape
Be familiar with past and present land use changes in key ecosystems in a watershed. To understand the upstream-downstream interaction between major ecosystems, with emphasis on land use and the role of trees in the landscape. Land use change: deforestation, alternatives to slash-and-burn agriculture, potentials of agroforestry systems for maintaining or rehabilitating watershed functions.
Agroforestry systems, practices and technologies
Definitions of agroforestry systems, practices and technologies
Agroforestry system: A land use system incorporating trees and crops and/or animals and with ecological and economic interactions between these components. Agroforestry practice: Any activity that farmers carry out within an agroforestry system, such as hedge planting Leucaena or planting rubber seedlings in a multi-layered agroforestry system. In addition, students can be asked which of the slides, posters or video clips or components of them are systems, practices and technologies.
Classification of agroforestry systems
Coffee and Pepper System in South Sumatra Slope Farmland Technology (SALT-1 in the Philippines). Jungle rubber agroforestry system in Jambi, Indonesia Damar complex agroforestry system in South Sumatra Homegardens in Java and Sri Lanka. Commonly used training materials such as slides, posters and video clips of different agroforestry systems can be used.
Tree domestication
Domesticating trees can increase tree management options for smallholder farmers and help them become successful tree growers. Be familiar with the various activities involved in the domestication process or continuum of trees. The status and importance of agroforestry tree domestication for germplasm conservation and farmer benefits.
Local agroforestry systems and practices
The concept of sustainability of agroforestry systems in the context of integrated natural resource management. Lectures and class discussions, posters and slides on the principles and theory of productivity, sustainability and adoptability. Key question: What are the important indicators of productivity, sustainability and adoptability in relation to agroforestry systems.
Institutions and policies related to agroforestry
Institutional context
Government agencies with mandates related to agroforestry and the function of those agencies in relation to agroforestry and natural resource management. Resource allocation and benefits from agroforestry development Formal and informal community-based institutions. The importance of local knowledge in the development of technology and a two-way exchange of knowledge between researchers and local people are increasingly recognized today.
Policies and programmes related to agroforestry
These plans and programs are generally implemented through the ministries of agriculture, forestry, environment and natural resources, education, local government, agrarian reform, trade and industry, finance, etc. Organizing seminar/workshop with government officials and policy makers as resource persons discuss/review the status and needs of policies, plans and programmes. At the end of the exercise, all groups will reconvene where each group discusses its recommendations and the reasons for each recommendation.
Advancing agroforestry practices
Participatory planning for agroforestry
Diagnosis and Design (D&D) is a methodology for diagnosing land management problems designed to assist agroforestry researchers and field developers in planning and implementing effective agroforestry innovations, particularly for agroforestry research. In order to achieve a realistic plan for agro-forestry research and development activities, it is necessary to implement land use and agricultural housekeeping. Proposed options for agro-forestry development and research are checked and evaluated in cooperation with farmers and communities.
Technology generation, testing and dissemination
Financial and economic analysis and evaluation of costs and benefits of agroforestry systems (various evaluation criteria: net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR), benefit/cost ratio (B/C), return on investment, salary back period). What happens after agroforestry products are harvested is often of considerable importance to the overall product or income. Therefore, post-harvest techniques and processing of agroforestry products are important aspects of technology diffusion.
Monitoring and evaluation
Use of an indigenous board game, 'bao', for assessing farmers' preferences among alternative agricultural technologies. Productivity evaluation: Express the productivity of the various outputs in measurable, quantitative and meaningful terms, for example quantity and quality of the product. Discuss the role of evaluation of an agroforestry innovation, and suggest the procedure for how an evaluation can be carried out.
Glossary
List of organizations
Regional Organizations
Participants in writing workshops
Private Reforestation Division Royal Forest Department and Forestry Research Centre, Faculty of Forestry, Kasetsart University. Organization and Personnel Department Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development No.2 Ngoc ha, Ba dinh, Hanoi. Institute of Agroforestry, College of Forestry and Natural Resources Administration Building University of the Philippines Los Banos (UPLB); and SEANAFE Coordinator.
