MASTER FARMER

TEACHING SMALL FARMERS MANAGEMENT

BRUCE M. LANSDALE

WESTVIEW PRESS                       1986

PART IX

PART TWO: TRAINING THE MANAGERS

The most significant common characteristic of the nikokiris, the master farmers, and the sergeants of agriculture is their competence as managers. The key task of development programs must therefore be to help peasants understand the concept and acquire the skills to become competent managers. Because no word equivalent to management exists in Greek or most Third World languages, the Farm School staff introduced the acronym POLKA to represent the five key aspects of the managing process – planning, organizing, leading, controlling and adjusting.

When a group of dairy farmers attended a special short course in dairy management at the Farm School, they were asked if they knew how their cows related to the POLKA. They knew that a polka was a Polish dance, but they did not see how it related to their cows. Once they had the acronym explained to them and they learned in the course the importance of the five management elements in their dairy operations, they began to appreciate the concept. A year later when the same group of trainees were asked at a refresher course what they still remembered they replied, “POLKA, POLKA.”

The five aspects of the POLKA are essential to the management of training centers. Based on experiences at the Farm School and other agricultural institutes, Chapters 5 to 9 are devoted to showing how the basic elements of the management POLKA can be implemented both in managing institutions and in training peasants to be better managers.

Hodja story #6

Hodja was determined to be decisive and efficient. One day he told his wife he would plow his largest field on the far side of the river and be back for a big dinner. She urged him to say, “If Allah is willing.” He told her whether Allah was willing or not, that was his plan. The frightened wife looked up to Allah and asked forgiveness. Hodja loaded his wooden plow, hitched up the oxen to the wagon, climbed on his donkey, and set off. But within a short span of a day the river flooded from a cloudburst and washed his donkey downstream, and one of the oxen broke a leg in the mud, leaving Hodja to hitch himself in its place to plow the field. Having finished only half the field, at sunset he set out for home exhausted and soaking wet. The river was still high so he had to wait until long past dark to cross over. After midnight a very wet but much wiser Hodja knocked at his door. “Who is there?” asked his wife. “I think it is me, Hodja,” he replied, “if Allah is willing.”

Chapter 5: The Planning Process

• Why is planning important in development?
• Can peasants really learn to plan?
• Is “leaving it to the gods” the most effective approach when there are so many unknowns?

 

Planning is the process of deciding in the present what will be accomplished in the future. Some managers insist that plans will be implemented whether “Allah is willing or not.” Wise managers include two additional steps in the planning process – controlling and adjusting (discussed in Chapters 8 and 9) – to provide flexibility. Peasants learned long ago that even the best plans depend on factors outside their control, such as the vagaries of nature and market forces, and they are inclined to cite their own experiences as excuses to avoid having to plan. For the same reason planning remains one of the weakest sectors in organizations involved in rural development. Staff members, like many of their peasant friends, notice that their institutions continue to make progress despite inadequate planning and therefore wonder why they should spend much time on this aspect.

LONG-TERM PLANNING

Planning is an ongoing process rather than an attainable objective and requires continual review and evaluation. This chapter uses a stormy period in the Farm School’s history to illustrate the importance of planning to an institution and the various steps involved. Plans grow out of a clear understanding of an institution’s mission, which gives it direction. However, the plans must be specific and clarify priorities and deadlines. In addition to long-range planning, institutions, individual departments, and staff members must have clearly defined medium- and short-term goals through which to evaluate their progress.

The second part of this chapter describes the achievements of 165 communities in the Thessaloniki Prefecture in planning specific projects and activities for their villages as a part of the Thessaloniki Community Development Program. Another example of fruitful planning was a poultry program to introduce broiler raising among 25 Farm School graduates. Peasants need help in clarifying and defining goals and relating them to their own needs – a process described in the final section.

The need for objectives

The Farm School’s recovery from a period of considerable difficulty in its history demonstrates the importance of careful planning. The school’s problems became acute in the 1970s when the Greek government completely revised educational programs and required the Farm School to follow suit. During this period enrolment dropped by two-thirds, and the cost per student more than doubled. Staff members became demoralised, trustees grew disillusioned, and students wondered about their future.===

A major weakness in the school’s policy was the failure of the director, the faculty, and trustees to clarify their objectives, they wanted to train village youth and adults as well as operate a demonstration farm, but beyond these points they showed little agreement on the school’s mission and its long-term goals or on their implementation. Like Hodja, they could have said, “We think it is us, the American Farm School, if God is willing.”

As the board’s concern about the future of the school grew, various trustees sought different approaches to effective planning, insisting that the faculty clarify their objectives. Marathon meetings lasting into the night were organized at the school. A village friend, representing a peasant point of view, commented that if the faculty had not spent so much time on planning, the program would already be organized.

After considerable discussion the staff agreed that some of the advantages of planning are that

1. Staff and trustees agree about the school’s directions.
2. Each staff member understands what is expected of him and his colleagues.
3. Trainees know what to expect of the institution and what will be demanded of them.
4. Everyone associated with the school has a clear picture of what the school is trying to accomplish and what support is required.
5. The existence of objectives makes it possible to periodically evaluate accomplishments.

 

John Henry House clearly stated his goals in the schools Charter of Incorporation: “providing agricultural and industrial training under Christian supervision for youth … in order that they may be trained to appreciate the dignity of manual labor and be helped to lives of self-respect, thrift and industry.” Seventy years later, the school’s activities and programs had grown too numerous and complex to be defined by such a simple statement. As efforts to resolve the conflict continued, three procedures to provide more effective planning were agreed on: a clear mission statement, a survey by an outside expert, and a long-term view by management.

During the discussions among board members, staff and others about the future direction of the Farm School in 1978, the chairman and a faculty committee drafted a statement that attempted to summarise where they felt the school should be going.  This statement in turn was reviewed by other committees, modified, and finally brought before the whole board during a two-day meeting devoted to long-range planning and goal clarification. This Mission Statement was adopted after lengthy discussions. Because the staff looked upon this statement as a broad guideline but not as a basis for scrutinizing specific activities and programs, they restructured it in outline form to give precise guidance on programs. The simplified form made it easier to clarify which activities were most important, which the board felt should be emphasized, and what the overall direction of the school should be.

THE FARM SCHOOL’S MISSION

The primary mission of the American Farm School is to provide vocational training for young Greek men and women as well as for adult farmers and their families on a highly specialized basis. In essence, the purpose of that training is to equip them to manage agricultural enterprises or otherwise assume positions of leadership in Greek agriculture.

Among the major programs are educational sequences for boys and girls of high-school age. Each of these programs conforms to the new Greek lyceum/technical school system which the School itself influences through direct training methods and by example. The School also offers a wide variety of extension courses for adults with primary emphasis on advanced farming and craft methods, rural development and management techniques consistent with the mission.

The many other ways in which the School carries out its mission include individual lectures, demonstrations, seminars and, in the future, publications. In its efforts to meet the needs of farmers in various regions, the School plans eventually to deliver programs in communities throughout the country as well as on the campus of Thessaloniki.

As in the past, the School is committed to playing a constructive role in the furtherance of understanding and friendship between the Greek and American people. The School intends to maintain its traditional identity as a non-profit educational institution, with support from the private sector ensuring its independence.===

The Mission of the American Farm School

The overall objective is to provide vocational training for rural youth and adults

A.    To manage agricultural enterprises

B.     To provide leadership in Greek agriculture

 

Specific Programs

1. Middle-level education programs

1. To train boys and girls
2. To influence training programs

a)      Through direct training

b)      Through example

1. Short course training programs for adults

 

1. Advanced farming
2. Craft methods
3. Rural development
4. Management techniques

 

1. Other programs

 

1. Individual lectures
2. Demonstrations
3. Seminars
4. Publications
5. Training in other communities

 

Secondary objectives

Further understanding and friendship between Greek and American people

Maintain identity as a private, nonprofit institution with support from the private sector (as well as the public sector), to ensure its independence.

 

Program-oriented planning