FAO Global Forum on Future of Farmer Field Schools for Sustainable Agrifood Systems organized in Malawi
Blantyre, 14-15-16 June 2023 – Over 120 participants from 35 countries representing farmers, governments, international organizations, private sectorand civil society gathered during three days for the FAO Global Forum onthe Future of Farmer Field Schools for Sustainable Agrifood Systems. Exciting discussions focused on innovations in FFS, strategy for the future, priority areas and FFS implementation mechanisms In recent years, Malawi has been the birthplace of several key innovations at scale across 14,000 FFS, including a country-wide digital real-time monitoring, evaluation and learning system for FFS imbedded in government operations.
In 2023, FAO launched a global consultation process on “The Future of FFS” including online consultations with “FFS Pioneers” of the approach, external organizations and a Regional Forum in the NENA region on 29-30 May, culminating during the Global FFS Forum. The various consultations evidenced that FFS is one of the best and most effective tools ever available to the international community to tackle the existential interrelated challenges. FFS need to be scaled up and upgraded if we want to successfully address complex crisis, empowering rural communities to drive major change.
Zhijun Chen, FAO Representative in Malawi, and Patrice Talla, FAO Sub-Regional Coordinator for Southern Africa, welcomed the participants, underlining the importance of farmer field schools to face today’s pressing challenges such as climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity and malnutrition, and expressed their appreciation for selecting Malawi as the host country for the Global Forum.
The three-day event was officially opened by Honorable Sam Dalitso Kawale, Minister for Agriculture of Malawi, who conveyed the Government of Malawi’s enthusiasm for the FFS approach, stating it as one of the most relevant approaches to address smallholders’ challenges. He also acknowledged the success of the EU-funded Kulima project in Malawi and declared that the FFS approach is being included in the new agricultural extension and advisory service policy.
Beth Bechdol, FAO Deputy Director-General provided opening remarks, recalling that farmers are at the center of FFS and highlighted the importance and potential of the Global FFS Platform to continue to facilitate inter country exchanges and empower farmers and institutions with knowledge and skills. She also stressed the importance of boosting farmer education and advisory services in view of future multiple challenges such as conflicts and extreme weather events.
Following the opening session, keynote presentation was made on global perspective by by Anne-Sophie Poisot, coordinator of the Global FFS Platform, on the National perspective by by Pearson Soko, Director of Agriculture Extension Services (DAES) in Malawi, and by Mutemwe Kavalo from Malawi, and on the stakeholder perspective from EU delegation in Malawi. The regional focus was conducted by a panel with speakers from each region: Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, Near East & North Africa, and Latin America & Caribbean.
In the afternoon, participants had the opportunity to share innovative FFS initiatives across organizations and across regions, through a share fair that included more than 30 posters. The posters were grouped under 7 topics: (i) agrobiodiversity, (ii) agroecology, (iii) innovation & ICTs, (iv) markets, youth and gender, (v) country perspectives, and (vi) sustainable agriculture. After that, discussions and eight presentations focused around two key themes: technical innovations and capacity development.
The second day of the forum was dedicated to field visits. Participants first visited the Thuchira Residential Training Centre, where government Master Trainers and Community Based farmer Facilitators are trained to facilitate the development of the in Malawi through capacity-developing, innovation and experimentation with local and introduced banana varieties, vegetable orchards and pineapple experimentation fields. The field visits continued at several farmer field school sites where participants exchanged and learnt more from farmers and facilitators. Deputy Director-General Bechdol and Director Xia were enthusiastic to see the positive impact FFS brought to farmers and communities.
In the third day, the morning discussions focused on Multistakeholder engagement and institutionalization to scale FFS, with four presentations, followed by a farmer forum, showcasing farmers’ and facilitators’ experiences and voices from different regions facilitated by Peter Kenmore. In the afternoon, participants divided into four groups and held parallel discussions on Technical innovations; Capacity development; Multi-stakeholder engagement and coordination; Enabling environment and institutionalization to find solutions to FFS challenges and strengthen the approach. The outputs of each parallel discussion were reported by participants at the plenary session.
In closing, Honorable Sam Dalitso Kawale, Minister for Agriculture of Malawi once again appreciated FAO and reassured the commitment of the Government of Malawi to institutionalize the FFS approach. FAO Deputy Director-General Bechdol highlighted her enthusiasm for farmer field schools and the importance to strengthen the Global FFS Platform, with its global community of practice with members in 136 countries and over 20 international partners, to support massive scaling of FFS and inter-country exchanges. She also underlined FAO’s strong support and commitment to strengthen the quality of the approach and to continue the exchanges. Jingyuan Xia, NSP Director stressed that
In facilitation of the closing session, Jingyuan Xia, Director, FAO Plant Production and Protection Division, mentioned that FFS are essential to transform agri-food systems and acknowledged the success of FFS programmes in Malawi, being highly innovative and getting institutionalized in the government’s policy. This forum is only the start of our journey to upgrade- the FFS for supporting transformation to sustainable agrifood system.