Local economies, entrepreneurship and Farmer Field Schools
Why link FFS with business development and market linkages?
Smallholder producers make decisions every day about production, inputs, labour, timing, risk, sales, investment and the use of household resources, often in difficult and changing conditions. Their priorities may include earning a better income, improving food security, reducing risk, supporting their families and building a more secure livelihood. For some, this also means engaging more effectively with markets.
In this context, production knowledge on its own is often not enough. Producers may also need support to assess opportunities, weigh options, manage risk and make decisions that reflect their own realities, priorities and goals.
How are Farmer Field Schools integrating business and market components?
Farmer Field Schools can play an important role in this process. While FFS have traditionally been associated with production-focused learning, they also help producers build practical skills that matter more broadly. Through observation, experimentation and group learning, producers can try out new ideas, adapt them to their own context, and better understand how production choices connect with seasonality, timing, demand and market opportunities.
Many FFS programmes have also been linked, adapted or expanded to strengthen producers’ business capacities and market engagement in different ways. In some cases, business-related topics are integrated directly into the FFS cycle. In others, they are introduced through complementary approaches, follow-up support, tools, partnerships or wider project arrangements. The combination depends on the context, the constraints producers face, the opportunities available and the wider support system around the group.
There is no single model that works everywhere. Different combinations of FFS, business development and market linkage support can help producers pursue stronger and more resilient livelihood outcomes, while also contributing to the Four Betters: better production, better nutrition, a better environment and a better life. In practice, these dimensions are often closely connected, and producers need to navigate both synergies and trade-offs when engaging with business and market opportunities.
Current work in this thematic area speaks directly to FAO’s renewed ambition for FFS, in which prosperous local agri-economies are identified as one of three interlinked impact domains. This focus is not about turning FFS into a business training model, but about understanding how FFS can better support producers to connect learning in the field with viable livelihood, enterprise and market opportunities.
The work looks at how different programmes combine FFS with business development and market linkage support, without assuming that one methodology fits all contexts. Some initiatives draw on structured approaches such as Farm Business School, Farmer Market School, Women’s Empowerment Farmer Business School or the Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion approach. Others adapt government extension materials, combine several tools, or develop their own methods to respond to specific commodities, market opportunities, institutional partners or producer needs. The purpose is to learn from this diversity and identify practical ways of linking FFS with viable livelihood, enterprise and market opportunities, without compromising the non-negotiable principles that make FFS effective.
Examples from the field
FFS and related approaches have been adapted in different contexts to strengthen business capacities and market engagement. In Nepal, FAO trained technical facilitators to support agribusiness development and market linkages. In Kenya, FAO worked with KALRO and GIZ on Farmer Business School approaches in potato-producing areas. In francophone West Africa, FFS have incorporated modules on quality and marketing, including food safety, product quality, market research and enterprise development.
Other approaches focus on specific groups or value chains. The Women’s Empowerment Farmer Business School, developed by FAO with KIT and CARE, supports rural women’s economic empowerment by strengthening capacities for profitable enterprises and value chains, while also addressing gender relations in households, communities and markets. GIZ has developed Farmer Business School approaches for cocoa, cotton and other commercial crops.
The purpose is to learn from this diversity and identify practical ways of linking FFS with viable livelihood, enterprise and market opportunities, without compromising the non-negotiable principles that make FFS effective.
