08/08/2025

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has launched a new webinar series designed to integrate Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (SAM) into Farmer Field Schools (FFS), targeting small-scale producers worldwide. 

This initiative comes at a time when smallholder farmers face increasing productivity challenges, centred around climate-related shocks, limited access to technology and outdated vocational training. As a result, farming remains labour-intensive and increasingly unattractive — especially for women and youth who often lack the finance needed to access modern tools, equipment and technologies. 

Speaking at the launch, Yurdi Yasmi, Director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division, emphasized the importance of Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization. 

“SAM not only empowers farmers to use tools and machinery that increase productivity, but also helps reduce drudgery and enhance resource efficiency in a climate-smart and socially inclusive way,” he said. 

The webinar series, set to run until the end of the year, stems from a Global Innovation Accelerator on SAM and FFS launched in June 2024 as a collaboration between FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division and it's Global FFS Platform in the Office of Innovation. 

The Global Innovation Accelerator aims to support the integration of SAM into FFS programmes through technical guidance, innovation challenges, plus training and partnerships with the private sector, government and rural organizations. 

Farmer Field Schools, which began in Asia in the late 1980s, have been implemented in more than 90 countries and have enhanced the skills of more than 12 million farmers, pastoralists and fisherfolk worldwide.  FFS has expanded beyond its original focus on Integrated Pest Management to cover sustainable production systems, agro-pastoralism, value chains, nutrition and life skills.  With its strength in non-formal adult education, FFS promotes experiential learning that blends scientific knowledge with local practices, ultimately empowering individuals, households and communities. 

“Technologies and innovations in the hands of smallholders must respond to real needs, not imagined futures. They must be developed with farmers. Today's session has clearly demonstrated why Farmer Field Schools are essential to the successful integration of sustainable mechanization into smallholder farming systems,” said Henry van Burgsteden from FAO’s Office of Innovation. 

“Mechanization is not only about machines but also about creating context-relevant, scale-appropriate, sustainable, and inclusive systems that ease labour, boost productivity, and restore ecosystems. The initiatives shared today illustrate how FFS can serve as entry points for smallholders to better understand, test, and adapt mechanization technologies in ways that are locally relevant and farmer-led.” 

At the launch of the first innovation challenge in 2024, forty FAO country offices in collaboration with local partners responded, with eight countries selected for an intensive training bootcamp in Rome: Bangladesh, Kenya, Mauritania, Nepal, the Philippines, Rwanda, Uganda and Zimbabwe.  

Following the bootcamp, Bangladesh, the Philippines and Rwanda each received a USD 200 000 grant along with technical support. The remaining five countries benefited from collaborative learning, participation in knowledge exchange events, and co-development of FFS-SAM guidelines. 

Through partnerships with vocational training centres, NGOs and private enterprises, the programme also aims to build local capacity, ensuring farmers are proficient in equipment operation, maintenance, and sustainable farming practices. Additionally, digital tools and financial models are being developed to increase smallholders’ access to technology and credit. 

As the webinar series unfolds, FAO seeks to inspire the broader integration of SAM through FFS among small-scale producers, thereby driving more efficient, inclusive, and climate-resilient agrifood systems that help farmers produce more with less, ensuring no one is left behind.