Asia
Pioneering participatory learning for agricultural development: the emergence of the FFS methodology
For more than three decades, Asia and the Pacific have been at the forefront of innovation in farmer education. It was in this region, in Indonesia in 1989, that farmers, educators, national institutions and FAO pioneered the first Farmer Field Schools, creating a participatory learning approach that would later spread across the world.
Today, millions of farmers across Asia continue to use the FFS approach to strengthen their knowledge, improve decision-making, test innovations in their own fields and build more sustainable and resilient food systems.
The first Farmer Field Schools emerged in response to a critical agricultural crisis where heavy pest outbreaks, specifically the brown planthopper, affected rice production and threatened food security. At the time, excessive pesticide use disrupted natural ecological balances and increased pest resistance. Farmers, researchers, educators and development partners worked together to develop a new way of learning based on field observation, experimentation and collective analysis.
The first FFS were implemented through the Indonesian National Integrated Pest Management (IPM) Programme. What started as a small pilot program 200 field schools soon evolved into a regional movement.
Driving innovations beyond rice production: the expansion of the FFS approach in the region
Following the success of the initial pilots in Indonesia, the approach rapidly scaled up across the region during the 1990s. Throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, FFS expanded rapidly across South and Southeast Asia through national programmes and regional collaboration, reaching countries including Bangladesh, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Nepal, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Viet Nam
FFS in Asia and the Pacific have continuously evolved in scale, scope, and structural integration to respond to emerging challenges and opportunities. From the initial group of farmers in 1989, FFS has reached over two million farmers in more than 15 countries across the region.
Today, some of the adaptations of FFS include non-rice crops (such as vegetables and cotton), soil and water management, climate change adaptation, agroecology, livestock management, and market-oriented farm enterprise development.
Case study: Science in producers’ hands: The Sayapatri Community IPM Resource Center in Nepal
In the hills of Kavre, former FFS participants transformed a small post‑project initiative into a community‑run IPM resource center that continues to thrive more than a decade later. What began as a response to dwindling technical support gradually evolved into a space where local producers experiment, refine and share ecological pest‑management solutions suited to their environment. FFS graduates now lead training, production and supply of bio‑inputs to neighbours and local institutions, and maintain laboratory processes once considered far-beyond the community’s technical skills. The center, built with government support, has become a trusted reference point, shaping expectations of what locally-led agriculture can look like, and embedding new ways of working, learning and deciding together. Its quiet success shows how deeply FFS can influence mindsets, relationships and local systems over time.
Moving beyond projects for long-term impacts: The institutionalization of FFS
Farmer Field Schools remain the dominant participatory capacity-building approach across Asia and are implemented through a diverse ecosystem of government extension services, FAO-supported programmes, NGOs, research institutions, farmer organizations, and private-sector actors.
A defining characteristic of this evolution has been the gradual integration of FFS into national frameworks, based on a large-scale stocktaking effort which helped identify different pathways for scaling up the FFS approach. In several countries, FFS has moved beyond standalone, donor-funded projects and has become embedded within national agricultural extension systems, local government structures, and broader agricultural development strategies. In addition, many FFS alumni networks have evolved into farmer organizations, cooperatives, and community-based groups that continue knowledge exchange and collective action beyond the life of specific projects.
Despite these achievements, the regional landscape remains uneven. While some countries have established institutionalized and scale-capable FFS systems, others continue to rely on project-based delivery, with fragmented coordination, unstable financing and inconsistent facilitator development pathways. Overall, regional assessments suggest that the key challenge is no longer demonstrating the value of FFS, but strengthening its institutionalization, quality assurance, and long-term sustainability within national agricultural advisory and extension systems.
Looking ahead : sustainable and long-term scaling
The future of FFS in Asia lies in consolidating these gains through stronger national ownership and institutionalization, supported by regional collaboration on facilitator competency development, quality standards, knowledge management, digital innovation, and harmonized monitoring systems, enabling FFS to scale sustainably while maintaining its participatory, inclusive, and learning-centered character.
Videos
Contact
For more information on FFS regional activities in Asia and Pacific reach out to
Jan Willem Ketelaar
International FFS coordination and innovation specialist
FFS and sustainable agricultural mechanization, integrated pest management, pesticide risk reduction
Publications
Global
Farmers taking the lead, 30 years of farmer field schools
01/01/2019
This brochure captures the major developments of the farmer field school over 30 years, highlighting innovations in different regions and contexts....
Central Asia
East Asia
South Asia
South-East Asia
Ten years of IPM Training in Asia from Farmer Field School to Community IPM
01/01/2002