Bangladesh is taking center stage in the global innovation arena. This time, it's transforming how smallholder farmers access and benefit from sustainable agricultural mechanization (SAM) through the Farmer Field School (FFS) approach.

On 24 April 2025, a groundbreaking initiative was officially launched in Dhaka by FAO, in collaboration with the Sara Bangla Krishak Society (SBKS), the Ministry of Agriculture, and key private sector partners. The initiative—“Integrating Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (SAM) through Farmer Field Schools (FFS) for small-scale producers”—is a bold experiment led by producers’ organizations, where organized smallholder groups drive participatory learning and mechanization, blending the time-tested participatory FFS approach with cutting-edge mechanization strategies tailored to smallholders.

Bangladesh is one of three global laureates—alongside Rwanda and the Philippines—selected from 40 applications as winners of the FAO Global Innovation Challenge on SAM and FFS for small-scale producers. The challenge, launched in June 2024, sought out the most promising and transformative ideas to bring mechanization closer to small-scale producers through FFS and participatory innovation approaches. After an intense Bootcamp in November 2024 involving eight shortlisted countries, Bangladesh emerged with a vision too compelling to ignore.

Now, that vision is becoming reality—powered by a USD 200,000 grant from the FAO Global Innovation Accelerator on SAM and FFS, and deeply rooted within the broader ACCESS Project – Accelerating Economic and Social Inclusion of Smallholder Farmers through Strong Producers’ Organizations. Funded by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program’s Producer Organization-Led Funding Window, ACCESS is working to strengthen the livelihoods of 8,000 smallholder farmers through the creation and support of 80 Producers’ Organizations (POs).The project worksacross 27 agribusiness clusters in two climate-vulnerable regions of Bangladesh: the southern coastal and northern drought-prone areas. With an investment of USD 4.75 million, the project is helping build resilient, inclusive, and market-oriented rural economies driven by empowered producers’ organizations.

At the heart of this effort is Sara Bangla Krishak Society (SBKS)—a national network of producers' organizations dedicated to the upliftment of smallholder farmers. With the backstopping support of FAO, SBKS provides training and coordination for all 80 POs in the ACCESS Project. Leading the way within Sara Bangla Krishak Society (SBKS) are Rita Bramma, President, and Md. Obydul Haque, General Secretary. Both began their leadership journeys as Farmer Field School (FFS) facilitators, with hands-on experience in implementing participatory learning.  Rita said "the FFS experience strengthened our leadership and participatory skills, which were essential in establishing SBKS, while its peer-to-peer and experiential learning approach taught us how to build strong, inclusive farmer organizations.” 

Obydul also started as an FFS facilitator in 2001, working under the Integrated Pest Management approach for rice cultivation. Reflecting on the new SAM and FFS initiative, both see it as a major opportunity. Obydul said “FFS will enhance farmers' capacity for sustainable agriculture, resource conservation, and problem-based decision-making. SAM will support the appropriate use and selection of agricultural machinery suited to the environment.” They believe that sustainable mechanization will help address labor shortages and reduce production costs, increasing women’s involvement in agricultural machinery, driving inclusive change in the farming system. 

Rita Bramma, President of Sara Bangla Krishak Society (SBKS), during one of the visits to the communities.

The innovative intervention on sustainable mechanization through FFS kicked off with a national inception workshop held in Dhaka on 24 April 2025, that brought together key stakeholders from government, civil society, and development partners. The event was graced by Ministry of Agriculture Secretary, Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian and FAO Representative in Bangladesh, Jiaoqun Shi and chaired by Nazmun Nahar Karim, Executive Chairman of the Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC).

The workshop aimed to sensitize participants on the importance of integrating sustainable mechanization into national policies and investment projects. FAO Bangladesh has been actively supporting the Ministry in the development of the "Transforming Bangladesh Agriculture: Outlook 2050," which identifies mechanization as a key driver of agricultural transformation, with sustainable agricultural mechanization to be included as part of this vision.

Members of a Producer Organization under the ACCESS project demonstrate the use of digital irrigation technology to national authorities during the Inception Workshop. 

In his remarks, Secretary Mian emphasized the strategic importance of the initiative, stating that "integrating sustainable agricultural mechanization in Farmer Field Schools will have a significant impact." He praised the partnership between FAO and SBKS, calling it a "remarkable initiative" that could inspire rural youth and women to see agriculture as a dignified, technology- and skill-based profession. “I hope this initiative will promote human-centered agriculture,” he concluded.

FAO Representative in Bangladesh, Mr. Jiaoqun Shi, echoed this vision, highlighting the transformative potential of the approach. “This initiative will support the integration of Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (SAM) into the Farmer Field School learning approach, to make agriculture more appealing and accessible to women and youth in Bangladesh, fostering greater engagement and innovation in the sector,” he said.

Mechanization–why and how?

Smallholder farmers in Bangladesh face persistent challenges: labour shortages, climate stresses, low productivity, and limited access to modern tools. But scaling mechanization isn’t just about getting machines into fields—it’s about ensuring the right machines reach the right hands, and that farmers have the knowledge, confidence, and mechanisms to use them wisely and sustainably.

And this is where the FFS approach comes in . A hands-on, community-led model, FFS empowers farmers not only to learn, but to experiment, adapt, and lead. It's about figuring out what works best for the community, together. In this initiative, farmers will work within their producers' organizations (POs) to test and integrate scale-appropriate mechanization solutions across five value chains: rice, potato, vegetables, coriander, and honeybee production.

Fifteen POs will host this pioneer intervention on SAM through FFS. Each PO will establish four FFS groups of 25 members, engaging 100 farmers per PO. These groups will:

• Identify challenges in their current farming systems,
• Experiment with SAM tools and techniques,
• Evaluate the results based on productivity, labour efficiency and reduced drudgery, profitability, environmental sustainability and business opportunities;
• Collectively decide to uptake the most promising machineries.

Mechanization tools will be scale-appropriate, climate-smart, and safe—all vetted against national standards. The intervention will also explore business models for machinery access—from individual service providers to cooperative ownership models to ensure that investment in SAM will lead to profits for smallholders.

This initiative is also breaking gender barriers, opening the door for women and marginalized groups to take part in hands-on learning, lead innovation, and explore new income opportunities—whether through machine operation, service provision, or agribusiness management.

Learning Together: From Curriculum to Action

As part of the inception phase, FAO and partners hosted a 4-day curriculum design workshop at the BRAC Training Centre in Dinajpur. The workshop brought together farmer facilitators, SBKS trainers, and national and international experts to co-design the FFS curricula—tailored to each of the five value chains and grounded in real-life crop calendars and production stages. One of the core objectives of the Curriculum Development Workshop was to strengthen the capacities of facilitators in using the participatory discovery-learning tools that are at the heart of the FFS approach.