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Policy briefEnabling farmer-led ecosystem restoration
Farmer field schools on forestry and agroforestry
2023Also available in:
No results found.Agricultural expansion is responsible for almost 90 percent of deforestation worldwide, making it a leading driver of biodiversity and habitat loss. Cropland expansion is the main driver, causing almost 50 percent of global deforestation, followed by livestock grazing, which accounts for 38.5 percent. This situation of great concern presents a critical question: How can agriculture continue to feed growing populations while contributing to the urgent restoration of the planet's ecosystems? Climate change mitigation programmes mostly aim to reduce emissions, protect natural forests and afforest abandoned areas. However, it is also important to adequately address the issues of the 2 billion family farmers who cultivate a third of the planet's surface area. About 550 million family farms – 84 percent of which are less than 2 ha – produce a significant share of the world's food. These smallholder farmers are especially vulnerable to climate and environmental change because their livelihoods often depend primarily on agriculture. Over the last 35 years, farmer field schools (FFS) have demonstrated their relevance in answering the growing international call for a re-direction in agriculture. FFS on forestry and agroforestry-related areas have helped rural people to deepen their knowledge of trees and forests, and stabilize and increase food, fibre and energy production while rehabilitating soils and pastures, and restoring biodiversity, shade trees, watersheds and landscapes. It emerged from an FAO stocktaking that FFS partners and programmes across Africa, Asia and Latin America have gained substantial knowledge in advancing small-scale forestry and agroforestry in an inclusive way. FFS on forestry and agroforestry can enable smallholders across the globe to advance the understanding, skills and social organization needed for more regenerative natural resource stewardship. -
Book (stand-alone)Enabling "Response-ability
A stocktaking of farmer field schools on smallholder forestry and agroforestry
2023Also available in:
No results found.Forestry and agroforestry education and extension programmes for forest and farm communities have not kept up with needs in many places. However, the success of achieving international sustainability goals and implementing global commitments with respect to sustainable production, halting land degradation, ecosystem restoration and climate change mitigation is contingent on having capacity in place at local levels, or building it, across a large part of the world’s rural lands. This publication reviews the current and potential application of farmer field schools (FFS) to strengthen the capacities and skills of smallholders and family framers in sustainable forestry and agriculture production. From 2020 to 2021, FAO conducted a stocktaking study to identify opportunities, challenges and lessons learned in the application of the Farmer Field Schools (FFS) approach on forestry and agroforestry. Through the review of over 400 documents (peer-reviewed and grey literature), 36 in-depth key informant interviews and a stakeholder workshop, this stocktaking identified twenty-one majors FFS programmes in forestry and agroforestry, with over 200 000 graduates distributed across every region of the Global South. Three decades of FFS experience on forestry, particularly agroforestry, has taken place in multiple geographic, environmental, and social contexts – from arid and semi-arid savannahs to high rainfall mountain environments. This experience represents a diverse, well-tested, decentralized and, locally situated knowledge base on which to build future programmes aiming at strengthening farmers and forest dwellers’ capacity to create sustainable agricultural systems that include trees and perennial crops. This stocktaking argues that though enhanced understanding of agro-ecological dynamics and farmer-led experimentation, the FFS can enable farmers across the globe to sustain or improve productivity while reducing their dependence on externally based inputs. Forestry and agroforestry applications promise to enhance the environmental integrity and socio-economic impacts of FFS, mainly by increasing the presence of perennials in production systems, useful for stabilizing food security and strengthening on-farm ecosystem services. -
Book (series)Farmer field schools for small-scale livestock producers - A guide for decision makers on improving livelihoods 2018
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Livestock Farmer Field Schools (FFSs) are “schools without walls” where groups of small-scale livestock producers test, validate, and adapt good agricultural and marketing practices that help them increase their production sustainably and to improve their, and their families’, livelihoods. Over the past two decades, Livestock FFSs have been implemented/supported by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and other development stakeholders in a wide range of environments and livestock production systems including pastoralism and agro-pastoralism, dairying, poultry production, integrated rice-duck systems, rabbit production, pig production, beekeeping, beef production, camel production and small ruminant production. Today, the FFS approach is used to spur livestock growth across developing regions, with governments, NGOs, the private sector and other stakeholders increasingly interested in applying it. This guidance document was prepared to help decision-makers involved in policy formulation and programme planning to: (i) gain a basic knowledge of the FFS approach, with emphasis on animal production, health and marketing; (ii) learn about the contribution of FFS to the livelihoods of livestock-dependent communities in different contexts; (iii) recognize the conditions required for the successful implementation of Livestock FFSs; and (iv) comprehend the potential of the FFS approach in a wide range of livestock production systems and socio-economic settings.
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