Schola Campesina and the Grassroots Innovations Assembly for Agroecology hosted an informal conversation entitled “Grassroots Innovations lead to Resilient Food Systems – The Agroecology approach” with key actors from FAO, academia and civil society organisations to critically explore and strategize on how to place grassroots innovations at the center of public policies, challenging dominant innovation narratives and drawing on recent reports that identify grassroots innovations as a key element for food system sustainability and resilience. It was an opportunity to highlight ongoing efforts to strengthen grassroots innovations across the globe.
Grassroots Innovations for Resilient Food Systems: Informal Exchange in Rome
On 17 October 2025, just before the start of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS), Schola Campesina and the Grassroots Innovations Assembly for Agroecology (GIAA) convened agroecology friends and allies in a central Rome local association place, where we sat together in a circle over a buffet dinner and connected with others joining online from different continents. Members of the Civil Society and Indigenous Peoples’ Mechanism for the CFS (CSIPM) Working Group on Urban and Peri-Urban Food Systems also took part in the exchange, bringing in their perspectives from local contexts.
The conversation opened with Mr. Kumar from Rythu Sadhikara Samstha, sharing the experience of Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming in India, where public institutions actively support farmer-to-farmer learning and community governance in the transition toward agroecology. His example grounded a broader reflection on how grassroots innovations emerge from the realities of producers and the territories where they live.
Participants highlighted that such innovations take many forms — technical, organisational, social, cultural, and economic — and that they are rooted in Indigenous and local knowledge systems. These pathways are already visible in Agroecology Schools (La Vía Campesina), Farmer Field Schools facilitated by FAO, Participatory Innovation Development and Documentation (Prolinnova), Farmer-led Research (McKnight Foundation), and ongoing experimentation led by farming groups like HIC and the Kenyan Peasants League in Kenya, REJEPPAT in Togo, and EcoRural in Ecuador. These practices are aligned with rights recognised in UNDROP Article 26, which affirms the right of peasants to maintain and develop their knowledge, technologies, seeds, and ways of life.
The conversation also explored what enables these innovations to flourish. Participants underscored the need for technical and legal infrastructures that keep knowledge and technologies accessible — including open databases and peer-sharing spaces, self-governed digital tools, interoperability standards, and community-defined protection mechanisms for seeds and innovations. Ideas such as a commons charter and public financial support were raised as ways to secure the common good character of community-driven solutions.
Discussion moved to institutions and policies, emphasising that local public authorities play an essential role in strengthening grassroots innovation ecosystems — as in the case of Andhra Pradesh, where institutions work hand-in-hand with producers. A holistic and systemic agroecology approach embedded across policies was considered vital for ensuring that territories themselves drive the transformation of food systems.
The contribution from the University of Vermont – Institute for Agroecology stressed the importance of people-centred research and education systems that recognise producers as co-researchers and protagonists. This direction was strongly supported by experiences from the McKnight Foundation and Seed and Knowledge Initiative, reinforcing the call for Participatory Action Research and other methodologies that build autonomy and collective learning.
Participants highlighted diverse knowledge and wisdom practices, including peer-learning methods, which celebrate curiosity, creativity, and exchange. These are already promoted through La Vía Campesina, Farmer Field Schools, and GIAA networks, enabling knowledge to circulate horizontally and internationally.
The role of community dynamism emerged as another critical pillar — whether through maker spaces that facilitate tool co-development, solidarity and social movements, or wider alliances that allow farmers, urban residents, and other community members to take collective action. Trust-building and resource-pooling agreements were noted as key to strengthening these alliances.
Finally, participants reflected on political awareness in innovation processes. The dialogue of knowledges, and experience from networks such as technology and food sovereignty alliances, underline that innovation cannot be detached from questions of power, rights, and self-determination. Critical assessments of technologies — as advanced by ETC Group and AfriTAP through innovation assessment methodologies — were highlighted as tools that support communities to decide which technologies truly reinforce food sovereignty.
The evening concluded with a shared understanding that grassroots innovations already sustain resilient food systems, and that public recognition, protection, and supportive public policies are essential to allow these innovations to continue growing, circulating, and shaping the future of food.
References of interest
- AFSA (2025) Pan-African Declaration on the future of biodigital technologies in food and agriculture
- A Growing Culture, ETC Group (2025) The Politics of Technology
- Biba (2025) Connecting Communities or Corporations? Digital Agriculture, Data Harvests and Food Sovereignty in Kenya
- CSIPM (2025) Vision Document on Urban and Peri-Urban Food Systems
- Fairbairn, M., Faxon, H.O., Montenegro de Wit, M. et al. Nat Food (2025) Digital agriculture will perpetuate injustice unless led from the grassroots
- Grassroots Innovations Assembly for Agroecology, (2025) reports and posts.
- IPES-Food & ETC Group (2021). A Long Food Movement: Transforming Food Systems by 2045
- Oslund S., Fleming S., Ferrante A., Thomas J., Cohen M. (2022) Technological autonomy not autonomous technology
- Pimbert, M. P. (2025). Financing Agroecological Transformations for Territorial Agri-Food Systems: Beyond the Myth of Financial Scarcity. Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene, 13(1): 00026.
- People’s Knowledge Editorial Collective (Eds). (2017). Everyday Experts: How people’s knowledge can transform the food system. Reclaiming Diversity and Citizenship Series. Coventry
- Schola Campesina (2021) Food systems and digitalizaon from a food sovereignty approach
Useful links
• UN Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other People Working in Rural Areas (UNDROP), Article 26
https://www.ohchr.org/en/instruments-mechanisms/instruments/un-declaration-rights-peasants-and-other-people-working-rural-areas
• Schola Campesina
https://www.schola-campesina.org/
• Grassroots Innovations Assembly for Agroecology (GIAA)
https://www.gia-agroecology.org/
(Links to reports and gathering materials available on the website)
• Rythu Sadhikara Samstha – Andhra Pradesh Community Managed Natural Farming
https://www.apcnf.in/
• La Vía Campesina – Agroecology Schools
https://viacampesina.org/
• FAO – Farmer Field Schools
https://www.fao.org/farmer-field-schools/en/
• Prolinnova – Participatory Innovation Development and Documentation
https://www.prolinnova.net/
• McKnight Foundation – Collaborative Crop Research Program
https://www.mcknight.org/programs/collaborative-crop-research-program/
• REJEPPAT (Togo)
https://www.facebook.com/RejeppatTogo/ (most updated public presence)
• EcoRural (Ecuador)
https://ecorural.ec/ (if available, otherwise Facebook presence)
• ETC Group – Critical technology and food sovereignty perspectives
https://etcgroup.org/
• AfriTAP – African Technology Assessment Platform
https://afsafrica.org/afritap/ (hosted via AFSA)
• University of Vermont – Institute for Agroecology
https://www.uvm.edu/instituteforagroecology
• Seed and Knowledge Initiative
https://www.seedandknowledge.org/