L’Atelier Paysan is a self-building cooperative in France that allows farmers to design and build the tools and equipment that will support their production system. Farmers are supported by engineers in the design; whilst they collectively decide on the characteristics of the tool they want to create. This initiative is of great inspiration for many other organisations across Europe, North America, and beyond.
The above documentation sheets have been developed in the frame of the first online Encounter -in a serie of 8- that enable online presentations and discussions between l’Atelier Paysan (France) and Tzoumakers (Greece). The second Encounter -on People-led farming tool Research and Development- will be held on September 9th, 2025 (11-12:30 CEST). Register here. This serie is possible thanks to the support of the 11th Hour Project.
In the Greec mountains of Epirus, Tzoumakers’ members organisations are building spaces for communities, young people and farmers to build the tools and equipment they need for food production and processing but also for decentralized energy systems and other essential issues for people’s autonomy and sovereignty. During the first Encounter (June 24th) (recording here), they explained their origins and purpose and; in this second Encounter (September 9th); they will shed light on how they consider and implement the (co)design and (co)building process of agroecological tools at local level. L’Atelier Paysan will describe their longstanding experience of farmer-led research and development, including how they organise the space for farmers to express their needs in terms of new tool or technology and to be supported by engineers or other experts; and how they collect feedback from users to improve the tools, etc. etc. This is of great importance for more recent and less experienced sister-organisations.