Building and Scaling Out Knowledge: The Practice of CoLearning with Farmers.

Building and scaling out knowledge is a necessary challenge to ensure sustainable practices emerge from research. Encouraging farmers to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes to adopt or adapt to technologies requires strengthening a knowledge-sharing network to co-develop adaptation approaches and activities, which is vital for sustainability. This report discusses two approaches to building knowledge networks: Stakeholder Engagement for Research and Learning (SERL) and the Sun Satellite Model (SSM). SERL and SSM help link all stakeholders for continuous research and learning, emphasising learning together.

An approach such as SERL has three main characteristics. Firstly, it includes all stakeholders and takes time to build realistic and contextual interpretations of issues. Secondly, it gives ownership to the stakeholders of the emerging innovations, adaptations and solutions to those issues that are local and implementable by each community. Thirdly, all stakeholders can provide inputs to facilitate and support the application of the innovations and adaptations over a period long enough for change to occur.

The Sun-Satellite Model represents a dynamic and collaborative approach to knowledge exchange and capacity building within agricultural communities. In this Model, the ‘sun’ farmer embodies a wealth of experience, expertise and traditional knowledge in farming practices, often as a mentor or guide to the 'satellite' farmer. Notably, the Sun-Satellite Model emphasises a reciprocal exchange of knowledge with the intention that both 'sun' and 'satellite' farmers actively learn from each other.
SERL was used in the Adapting to Salinity in the Southern Indus Basin (ASSIB) project to develop and
investigate adaptation options and strategies for people managing and living in salinity-affected agricultural landscapes in the southern Indus Basin. The SSM allowed farmers to experience and offer feedback on an alternative approach to farmer-to-farmer learning.

This report shows that there are strengths in both approaches. Using farmer stories and feedback, we ultimately determine that there is an advantage in using the SERL methodology together with the metaphorical framework of the SSM. It concludes by recommending strategies for scaling out the approaches through knowledge sharing. Such knowledge sharing depends on identifying and engaging champions for change who are passionate, knowledgeable, influential and able to convince crucial people in the right places to promote the notions embedded in SERL, particularly at a government and policy-making level. Knowledge sharing is also strengthened when stakeholder form their own peer-to-peer networks, including networks where agricultural service providers and extension services field assistants are enabled to work closely with farmers,
as well as networks among farmers already skilled in farmer-to-farmer facilitation. Use of such knowledge sharing and co-inquiry approaches should be championed and facilitated by organisations like the Pakistan Agricultural Research Council.