In Indonesia, unreliable access to water poses paramount challenges to small-scale farmers, threatening broader food security. This case study evaluates whether field demonstrations of microirrigation technologies, delivered via a Farmer Field School (FFS) program, can promote adoption of improved sustainable agricultural practices in water-scarce eastern Indonesia. In the village of Salohe, 21 melon farmers participated in 14 FFS meetings that incorporated hands-on demonstrations of three distinct microirrigation systems: sprinkler, drip, and subsurface. Effectiveness was assessed by the Kirkpatrick model and Rogers’ attributes of innovation.

Participants responded positively to the FFS, and observed measurable improvements in water use efficiency and melon yield. The findings suggest that integrating field demonstrations into the FFS is a promising approach for scaling the adoption of microirrigation technologies to farmers in water-scarce areas.