L’Atelier Paysan (France) and Tzoumakers (Greece) are conducting similar actions in their respective contexts to decentralize agriculture innovations and technologies and exit this power from corporate actors to the hands of farmers and rural people. Recognizing that the exchange of innovations, methods and practices amongst peer organisations is of high importance to strengthen their activities; these organisations came together with others from all over the world in the Grassroots Innovations Assembly for Agroecology (GIAA), in 2023.
This serie of 8 online sharing moments, or Encounters, is an opportunity for peer organisations to exchange structured knowledge and learn from each other; documenting valuable -and often invisible- practices to promote innovations co-creation at the grassroots’ level.
During the first Encounter (June 24th), both organisations explained their origins and purpose.
In the second Encounter (September 9th); they described the efforts of Research and Development of farming tools and technologies at grassroots level. How to co-create a first design of the tool, realize a prototype and collect feedback for improvement.
- Farmer-led tool development in Greece, by Tzoumakers (Encounter 2)
- Farmer-led tool development in France, by l’Atelier Paysan (Encounter 2)
In the third Encounter (October 7th); we addressed How we learn and develop skills in farming communities? What are the methodologies to circulate specific skills and know how? How organisations create the spaces for peer-learning on wood working and welding? See related article.
During the Encounter 4, we ewplored the strategies of Tzoumakers and L’Atelier Paysan to disseminate their actions across the rural territories of Greece and France. How to scale out and deep into the territories, an initiative that is born in a specific place with a specific purpose? What are the difficulties and potential of the French swarming strategy (“essaimage”), networking and building relationship with local actors?
Encounter 4: The exchange between L’Atelier Paysan in France and Tzoumakers in Greece began with a shared challenge: initiatives are often deeply rooted in one place, yet face significant barriers when trying to reach farmers elsewhere. Distance, limited time and funding, cultural gaps, and lack of trust beyond close networks shape who can be reached and how.
L’Atelier Paysan presented two key outreach strategies. The first is the use of “factory vans” — mobile workshops that travel across rural areas to host tool-building sessions and trainings. By bringing infrastructure directly to farmers, these vans reduce physical barriers and strengthen peer-to-peer learning.
The second strategy is “swarming”. Here, swarming refers to the decentralisation of the organisation itself, through autonomous local groups that share common principles rather than being managed centrally. These groups align around open access, Creative Commons licensing, agroecology and popular education, and are connected through trust-based coordination, shared charters and qualification processes. Instructors circulate across the network, allowing skills and teaching capacity to be shared. While this has enabled L’Atelier Paysan to expand across territories, it remains time-intensive and constrained by limited capacity.
Tzoumakers shared a contrasting experience from Greece, where rural areas show strong inventiveness but lack shared infrastructures. Much effort initially went into building trust with farmers who were cautious of external actors and externally funded projects. While local connections were established, expanding beyond this remained difficult. More recently, Tzoumakers has been exploring smaller-scale forms of outreach, community hubs, and new narratives around dignified rural livelihoods, particularly for younger people seeking alternatives to urban life.
Encounter 4 made clear that outreach strategies cannot succeed on their own. They depend on enabling infrastructures — technical, social, institutional and political — and on power relations that shape which forms of knowledge and innovation are recognised, resourced or sidelined, including through public policies and the role of local authorities. For GIAA, this reinforces the importance of strengthening infrastructures for grassroots innovations that are grounded in trust, community governance, humility and locally rooted ways of working.
The 5th Encounter will be dedicated to the Governance model of both organisations, and will be held on December 16th. Register here.
To come in 2026
Encounter 6: What kind of technologies are desiderable to advance Agroecology and people’s Agency?
Encounter 7: Building an agroecology narrative on Innovations .
Encounter 8: Financing grassroots innovations for Agroecology.
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Farmer-led innovation across borders: France & Greece in dialogue
Through the Grassroots Innovations Assembly for Agroecology (GIAA), farmer networks are showing that innovation is not only about new tools, but about building an ecosystem of collaboration, knowledge-sharing, and autonomy. Together, initiatives like L’Atelier Paysan in France and Tzoumakers in Greece are decentralizing agricultural technology, moving it out of corporate hands and back into the care of farmers and rural communities.
These exchanges matter. In the first online Encounter (June 24th), the two organizations presented their origins and paths. In the second (September 9th), they shared how farmers themselves can co-create designs, build prototypes, and improve them with user feedback—practical steps that strengthen autonomy and resilience in agroecology. This series of eight online sharing moments—our Encounters—creates a structured space for peer organisations to exchange and learn together, while documenting valuable, often invisible practices that make co-creation of innovations possible at the grassroots level.
Now the journey continues.
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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.
In the Greek mountains of Epirus, Tzoumakers’ members organisations are building spaces for communities, young people and farmers to master their future, building 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
Schola Campesina Aps is an international agroecology school rooted in Italy, in the Biodistrict della Via Amerina e delle Forre. Through organisation of workshops, events and trainings, Schola Campesina facilitates the exchange of knowledge amongst peer organisations worldwide to advance Agroecology and Food sovereignty.