A groundswell of knowledge and innovation recently emerged in Bogor, Indonesia during a week-long Learning Exchange on agroecology economies convened by the Agroecology Fund. More than 100 participants from 20 countries, representing-Asian grassroots organizations, advisors and donors shared experiences and strategies to strengthen local agroecology-based food systems.
The Learning Exchange made clear that for innovation, agroecology does not rely on technology transfer. At the very center of agroecology lies the principle of knowledge co-creation.
A gallery of 45 stories showcased agroecological approaches to farming and fishing across Asia. They told stories of circular economies, revived traditions and local knowledge, and securing land reform. They described triumphs and hardships of marginal farmers and fishers challenging the domination of industrial food systems and grappling with the mounting threats of climate change.
Behind the posters were grassroots innovators, grantees of the Agroecology Fund. The Agroecology Fund is a pooled, multi-donor grantmaking fund and learning connector which has provided over US$40 million in funding to support agroecology movements to strengthen resilient, healthy food systems; uphold rights; conserve biodiversity; and address climate change through sustainable, low-input agriculture.
Globally, agroecological systems are vital not only for addressing poverty and hunger but also for climate change mitigation. Agriculture alone contributes 30 percent of greenhouse gas emissions through production and use of industrial farm inputs—fertilizers and pesticides.
In a discussion on climate and agroecology entrepreneurship, Sakiul Millat Morshed of SHISUK from Bangladesh and Karan Singh of Farmversities from India presented their agricultural development models rooted in traditional knowledge. The SHISUK agroecological experience integrates rice and fish farming on Bangladesh’s floodplains, significantly boosting farmers’ year-round income by cutting paddy cultivation expenses and adding revenue from aquaculture. Before SHISUK stepped in, the seasonal inundation of the floodplains pushed farmers out of their livelihoods and deeper into poverty.
In Sakiul Millat’s view, “traditional knowledge is social capital that helps a community to grow together.” SHISUK’s success comes from blending social capital with modern science, managing natural resources wisely and adapting to climate change. In addition to better income and nutritional benefits to the farmers, strengthening entrepreneurship on floodplains improves soil moisture, groundwater recharge, while diminishing pollution.
Karan Singh of Farmversitiy, a grassroots organization based in Rajasthan, India, shared how his work with young farmers, men and women, has dissuaded migration to cities, revived traditional farming practices, and introduced value-added farm-products as additional source of income.
Nantawan Manprasong of The Field Alliance shared their approach, from Vietnam and Thailand, to collaborating with government and community-supported school meal programs, where children not only eat traditional agroecological food, but also grow it at their school. Strengthening this public procurement demand mechanism fortifies an agroecology economy and makes visible and viable traditional food varieties. Manprasong described nutritional improvements from agroecology, and the health and environmental benefits of pesticide-free farming practices and climate change resilience.
Consumer awareness is likewise key to the growth of agroecology economies. Participatory Guarantee Systems (PGS) were discussed as a popular, low‑cost mechanism for building trust between producers and consumers. Community-led certification validates the application of agroecological principles. Muhil Kannaiyan of the Thalavady Farmers Foundation, India, said “we leverage agroecology’s sustainability, ecological, health and ethical values to build consumer trust.” The Foundation’s multilingual smartphone app ‘Farmfit’ gives farmers direct access to markets—enabling them to reach consumers directly and bypass intermediaries. The application helps with pricing and distribution challenges and results in better returns on food production.
But agroecology economies receive little investment on an uneven playing field already biased towards heavily subsidized industrial agroecology. Cristino Panerio of the Philippines, an advisor to the Agroecology Fund, spoke to the ways in which agroecological farmers are often left out of a longer value chain, which favor use of chemical inputs over bioinputs.
Critical to a strong local agroecology economy is strengthening territorial markets, often in collaboration with municipal governments, a strategy employed from Turkey to Malaysia. These markets function best with sufficient local supply of agroecological produce, which is much aided by robust networks of food-producing cooperatives.
Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI), a national farmers organization and the learning exchange co-host in Indonesia, described how farmers’ market and cooperativism empowers otherwise marginal farmers. After years of struggle for peasants’ rights to land and seeds, establishing food sovereignty zones has helped achieve productivity, at par with industrial farming—but at significantly lower costs. And FAO studies confirm that agroecological practices can deliver higher long-term yields without external inputs, and enhance crop resilience in the face of an uncertain climate.
SPI’s work underscores how localized control and collective enterprise can lay the groundwork for an agroecology food economy. Recalling her experience with the empty supermarket shelves during Covid and setting up markets for agroecology products across Bangkok, Anne Lapapan of The Assembly of the Poor, Thailand, stated that the pandemic showed how neither consumers nor farmers can rely on long supply chains dominated by transnational corporations for their food and seeds. During the pandemic, the Assembly of the Poor ensured agroecological vegetable supply in Bangkok’s urban neighborhoods.
Participants from India shared experiences leveraging government programs to finance agroecology. Sridhar Radhakrishnan, sustainable agriculture specialist and AEF advisor from India, suggested that to scale agroecology, organizations need to explore local financing beyond traditional donor models. He cited examples from India.
The discussions underscored the global forces that conflict with the growth of localized agroecological economies. Azra Sayeed of Roots for Equity, Pakistan, spoke to the layered vulnerabilities faced by smallholder farmers—ranging from war and climate crises to debt, economic restructuring, and displacement in the name of development. AEF advisor Lim Ching cautioned against biodiversity offsets, noting that related schemes such as carbon credits had not yet delivered on their sustainability and equity claims. She cautioned that such offsets can have perilous outcomes for communities with irreversible ecological damage.
A report by the Global Alliance for the Future of Food estimates that a global transition to agroecology would require a US$250-430 billion investment per year to align our food systems with the 1.5°C Paris Agreement. We have a long way to go. The Asia Learning Exchange clearly brought to light dozens of impactful community-based initiatives hungry for investment and capable of leading an agroecological shift in the world’s food systems.
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Photo courtesy of Agroecology Fund
