“With the PIP approach, I feel able to prepare for my future
because I have received the whole technical package to increase
agricultural production. […] Even if the project stops today
we will still continue because the knowledge we have received from the
project is sufficient for the implementation of our PIP. The PIP has
developed us a lot, we can’t stop.”
Gaining the technical knowledge to implement and maintain conservation
practices is crucial for sustainable land management. In the PIP
approach this is mainly done from farmer-to-farmer and on the farms,
allowing as such that – next to agro-technical knowledge – farmer
trainers exchange their experiences, vision and inspiration. Figure 4
shows how different PIP generations rate the knowledge they have gained
over the past years for a variety of crop and land management practices.
Non-PIP farmers score close to zero for all practices, meaning that even
some basic agricultural practices such as good planning of crop
rotations and contour ploughing seem to be unknown to them. This changes
rapidly after the PIP trainings, with the 1st and
2nd generations affirming to have acquired (much) more
knowledge on all practices, and 3rd and
4th generations scoring just a bit lower. PIP farmers
quickly become eager to learn from others and start actively approaching
farmers who know more (see quote below of a 3rdgeneration PIP farmer of 65 years old). This scaling process is driven
by the different mind-set of these farmers after PIP creation and their
awareness of land stewardship.