FAO.org

As world population numbers tick ever higher, ensuring that food production keeps pace is one of the biggest challenges facing humanity. Large-scale agriculture will provide part of the solution, but smallholder farmers (farmers in developing countries who often have limited land and capital, are poorly linked to markets and are [...]

El cultivo de cacao constituye un rubro de gran importancia social y económica en Centroamérica, siendo una fuente de ingresos para más de 15000 familias. Aún así, en ocasiones la producción de cacao se ve limitada por problemas de manejo que pueden relacionarse con la existencia de pocas oportunidades de capacitación. [...]

This paper reports on how the farmer field school (FFS) approach has been used to successfully catalyse important changes among stakeholders in the savannah zones of West Africa. Improved agronomic practices, better decision-making skills and diversification of smallholder farms in developing countries are shown to provide farmers the opportunity to [...]

With the support of the Millennium Village Project, farmers in Bonsaaso, Ghana have formed collectives. This enables experienced farmers to pass their knowledge along to the younger member of their community, thereby improving crop yields and nutrition.

The contribution of community-based interventions, including farmer field schools (FFSs) in integrated pest management (IPM), to reducing pesticide exposures and associated neurotoxic burden among smallfarm families in Ecuador was assessed in three Andean farming communities in a co-design of targeted action–research. Baseline questionnaire surveys elicited pesticide-related knowledge, practices, and exposure [...]

Fisheries and aquaculture integrating Food security field schools (FSFS) in Kenya.

Over the past eight years, CARE-Bangladesh has been developing a set of sustainable agriculture projects to improve production in rice-based farming systems in this country. These efforts have contributed to an emergent programme to increase food security for poor and marginal farmers. The programme raises agricultural productivity by diversifying agroecosystems and optimizing yields, reducing costs [...]