What 910 farmers taught us about running a training

We have now run training sessions with 910 community members. That number is worth writing down, but the more useful thing is what the sessions taught us about how to run the next one.

People stay for the plot, not the talk

Attendance held when the session was on a plot with tools. It fell whenever we opened with a presentation. We stopped presenting.

One workshop teaches almost nothing

Groups we met once did not change practice. Groups we met four or five times across a season did. Adoption tracks contact hours far more closely than it tracks the quality of the material.

The first question is almost never technical

Farmers asked about price, about labour and about risk. If the answer to "what happens if this fails" is not honest, nothing else in the session lands.

Records change minds

Farmers who kept simple records were the ones who kept the practice. Seeing your own yield written down beats hearing about someone else's.

What we changed

Every training group now runs across a season. Every session happens on a plot. And every participant leaves the first meeting with a record sheet.