New technologies and practices for family farming

07/09/2022

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The Course "New Technologies and Practices for Family Farming" is part of the Regional Technical Platform for Family Farming (https://www.fao.org/americas/daf/plataforma/es/), in collaboration with the projects "Sowing Capacities" (ABC, MAPA Brazil, MADR Colombia and FAO) and "Farmers Organizations for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries - FO4ACP" (IFAD, EU, OACPS, PROCASUR and FAO). This platform promotes institutional and technical innovations that strengthen family farmers and small producers around the world, both by mobilizing knowledge, experiences and good practices and by fostering dialogue, learning and collaboration among various internal and external entities associated with FAO. 

Innovation has marked several historic moments, having revolutionized countless processes. Today, technology is related to almost all productive activities. The topic of innovation has been flooding agroindustry and expanding into the sphere of family farming, where the dynamics for the introduction of new technologies are structurally different compared to those of large agroindustrial chains. In this context, the purpose of this course is to present the applications of technological and social innovation in family farming and the challenges related to its implementation, based on experiences and outstanding cases from Latin America and the Caribbean. 

Specifically, the course seeks to promote the innovation ecosystem with respect to the agents involved in family farming and to encourage the use of new technologies as a platform for the provision of services, connection with the market and quality of life. Thus, this course will discuss the use of new technologies in family farming, seek to understand what technological and social innovation is and its various possibilities, visualize the public policies that can contribute to the innovation process, understand the innovation pathways for family farming through management, production and marketing, reflect on adding value through agro-industrialization, agro-tourism and agro-events (AVAAA), and finally, understand how to use digital technologies. 

This training course is part of the Regional Technical Platform for Family Farming (https://www.fao.org/americas/daf/plataforma/en/) in partnership with the projects “Sembrando capacidades” [Sowing Capacities] (ABC, MAPA Brazil, MADR Colombia and FAO) and “Farmers Organizations for African, Caribbean and Pacific countries - FO4ACP” (IFAD, EU, OACPS, Procasur and FAO). It promotes institutional and technical innovations that strengthen family farmers and small producers around the world, both by mobilising knowledge, experiences and best practices, and by fostering dialogue, learning and collaboration among various internal and external partners of FAO. 

Course description:

Name: New technologies and practices for family farming

Code: ITAF202207-EN

Course type: salfe-paced course

Language: English

Duration of the course: 20 chronological hours

Start of course: September 7, 2022

Intended audience:

• Public managers and professionals working in the implementation of programs and actions related to rural development mechanisms and programs.
• Representatives of family farming organizations.
• Professionals working in the field of South-South Cooperation in its different modalities.
• Civil society leaders, representatives of the private sector and academia, and people interested in the course program.
• Technicians and coordinators involved in projects managed by FAO in the region.

General objective:

To present the applications of technological and social innovation in family farming and the challenges related to its implementation based on exceptional experiences and cases from Latin America and the Caribbean.

Specific objectives:

• To analyse the use of new technologies in family farming.
• To understand technological and social innovation and its potential.
• To identify public policies that can support the innovation process.
• To understand the different innovation pathways in family farming through management, production and marketing.
• To reflect on value addition through agro-industrialisation, agro-tourism and agro-events (VAAAA).
• To understand the use of digital technologies.

Contents: 

• Technological innovation
• Innovation beyond the use of technology
• Innovation pathways
• Value addition through agro-industrialisation, agro-tourism and agro-events (VAAAA)
  

Better to which it belongs: BP4: Small scale producers equitable access to resources

Supervising Officer: Luiz Beduschi