Farmer to Farmer: See It, Try It, Learn It

TARIMKON Proje Ekibi 16 October 2026 · 3 min read · 32 views

A new practice rarely spreads through a village because of a brochure. It usually starts in a neighbour's field. The campaign's third theme is about farmers learning from each other. This article gathers what the project's training materials and fieldwork say about it; the experiences themselves will come from farmers, in their own words, in the hub's discussion area.

Farmers trust their neighbours most

The training presentation on the social and behavioural dynamics of technology adoption recalls a well-known finding of rural sociology: farmers trust their neighbours far more than catalogues or brochures. When respected, open-minded lead farmers use a technology and get results, it gains acceptance at the village coffee house. The presentation calls this farmer-to-farmer learning and argues that the best agricultural training can take place in the field of a lead farmer who already uses the technology. It cites India's Digital Green, where young villagers trained their neighbours on smart devices and adoption rose sevenfold compared with conventional extension.

Seeing is believing

Visibility also decides how fast an innovation spreads: a sensor under the soil is invisible, a spraying drone is seen by everyone. For a farmer who won't believe it until they see it, the best answer is a conventional strip and a smart-farming strip planted side by side. A presentation on local agricultural training models describes the same approach through the Farmer Field School, first developed by FAO in Indonesia in 1989: a group of 20-30 farmers meets in the field from sowing to harvest, observes and decides together. Research cited in the presentation suggests that farmers who take part in such programmes adopt new technologies at a rate 60 percent higher than others.

Opportunities to see for yourself

According to a project announcement of 20 January 2025, lavender was planted on pilot fields in Şanlıurfa, İzmir, Ankara, Adana and Sakarya, so that local farmers and stakeholders can follow the process on site. On the fourth day of the training of trainers held on 8-12 May 2026, participants visited a walnut orchard in Polatlı to examine sensor systems, irrigation and data collection in the field, and saw how soil, water and plant data are turned into irrigation decisions. During the visit to Athens in June 2026, the delegation saw conventional and precision fertilisation running side by side on the same farm.

Experience counts more when it is recorded

One farmer's experience helps another when there is a record of what was done and what came of it. At the farmers' meeting in Sakarya, a standard for field data collection and record keeping was set as one of the three work streams of the joint roadmap. At the local policy dialogue meeting in Yüreğir on 12 February 2025, participants agreed that local producers are open to new ideas, and said they are ready to adopt measurement, record keeping and advisory models once they have reliable information and a sound planning framework.

Share the difficulties too

Learning from other farmers is not only about success stories. The adoption presentation points out that a farmer's caution about new technology is often a rational defence against risk: if a new method fails in the field, it is not just one year's profit at stake but the seed, the labour and the family's livelihood. Talking openly about what went wrong helps the next farmer avoid it. The campaign's day-four messages say as much: "One farmer's experience can be another farmer's starting point." and "Let's share practices, results and difficulties openly."

Who was the first to try a new practice in your area, and what did others learn from it? Join the discussion in the Digital Advocacy Hub to share the difficulties as well as the successes.