Contribution of field schools to extensionism in Mexico

Abstract

Extensionism in Mexico until 2000 was unidirectional, without taking into account the user of the technology or the processes to be transferred. After the introduction of the Field School Model to Mexico, the way of doing extensionism changed, the National Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Livestock Research (INIFAP), since that year in the implementation of said model and 20 years later through the FORDECyT Projects, Territorial Development (PRODETER) and then through the technical support strategy (EAT ) inserted at the national level as part of the methodology to carry out an extension where the producers were not users but subjects and beneficiaries of the extension process, that is, based on their problems, they decide what to do in their Family Production Units with the technological options available at your disposal. The results indicate that through Field Schools and “learning-by-doing” there is a greater understanding of the technologies and greater expectations of their adoption, given that they work with producers over 53 years old on average. The objective of this work is to relate how this model has permeated public policies and has been inserted into the taste of producers in three strategies of bringing technologies to producers in the Mexican Republic and its contribution to food self-sufficiency and less dependence on external inputs based on the agroecological transition and more environmentally friendly practices.