Farmers field schools (FFS), FAO's front-line innovation, are amongst its most fundamental field contributions to fulfill this commitment. FAO has been incubating, nurturing and promoting Farmer Field Schools for over a quarter of a century. FFS emerged during the same period as problems of climate change and accelerating international spread of pests; but they also evolved as our understanding of ecosystem services improved. So as we confront ever more complex global to national to local problems, we also understand much better how to build on local ecosystems to make agriculture and food production more sustainable. This movement has grown from the promotion within government extension programmes of a new paradigm of experiential, handson education and empowerment, to address complex production threats and a range of technical and livelihood issues, in both government and civil society programmes in over 90 countries. FFS enable and empower smallholders, their families and rural communities to understand and respond to present challenges and make their own critical contributions to the attainment of SDGs. FFS are earning growing support from partner governments, NGOs, researchers, international development and financing organizations, and social movements.
