Celebrating Thirty Years of Farmer Field Schools in Konya, Turkey!

FAO Turkey is celebrating Thirty Years of Farmer Field Schools in Konya on 25 June 2019.

Farmer Field Schools provide a platform where smallholder farmers can come together to exchange information, test practices and co-create innovations. At the same time, farmers gain critical insights and skills that allow them to transition towards healthy and sustainable food and agriculture systems.

Placing farmers at the heart of the learning and solution-finding process, the FAO developed Farmer Field Schools in the 1980s. They continue to support Field Schools globally, together with an increasing number of partners from other UN organizations, national and international NGOs, governments, farmers’ organizations and the private sector.

Therefore, FAO Turkey is also celebrating this flagship concept of FAO in Konya. Agricultural production capacity of Konya is incredible. It is even internationally recognised that Konya is the granary of Turkey. In addition to that, Konya is diversifying its agricultural production and improving the industry.

All these developments bring along several challenges, such as climate change, land degradation and water scarcity. For this reason, FAO has been focusing on the Konya Closed Basin to support the efforts for sustainable and more resilient agricultural production under the ‘Sustainable Land Management and Climate Smart Agriculture` project funded by the Global Environment Fund (GEF).