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Fellow co-convenor Bernard Triomphe, a senior researcher at the French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development (CIRAD), followed with an overview of the platform’s structure and evolution, highlighting the importance of collaboration across communities of practice and urging members to take ownership“The TPP is you,” Triomphe said. “If you want it to grow and to do things differently, let’s do it together.”
From learning to doing
Reflecting the platform’s ethos, the forum prioritised reflection, co-creation, and field-based learning. Participants engaged in reflection sessions, collaborative workshopping, participatory policy formulation and shared learning visits to local initiatives — including an agroecological cooperative farm, a traditional medicine processing plant, a tree nursery and composting systems using vermiculture and biofertiliser.
These exchanges demonstrated agroecology’s wide-ranging impacts. One standout story came from JonJon Sarmiento, a smallholder farmer and agroecology advocate from the Philippines. He shared his two-decade journey of building a climate-resilient, small-scale farm.
“In 2016, a strong typhoon hit my farm—but I was able to start recovering in just 23 days,” he said.
Sarmiento’s 4,400 square metre farm now includes multipurpose leguminous windbreaks that also serve as livestock fodder, a rainwater catchment and fertilisation system that irrigates his rice paddies, a seed bank, a diversity of fruits and medicinal herbs and a closed-loop composting system. “In 1998, the farm was a mono-cropped rice field,” he said. “Now, it looks more like a forest.”
Tools, policy and pathways
The second half of the week focused on how to scale success stories like Sarmiento’s through participatory research, technical support, policy reform and financing mechanisms.
Michael Hauser, a senior scientist at Vienna’s University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, shared a transdisciplinary framework and self-assessment tool to support the co-creation of agroecological knowledge. Additional case studies from across the Global South revealed the power of farmer-researcher partnerships and the genuine need and drive for long-term investment and enabling policy environments.
The forum’s overarching message was clear: agroecology is not just a set of farming techniques — it is a fast-growing movement towards justice, integration and planetary health. Its relevance continues to grow in the face of escalating climate impacts and food system vulnerabilities.
Agroecology is already reshaping landscapes, policies and livelihoods — but scaling it up requires broad participation, inclusive dialogue and shared commitment.
“We’re here to explore resilience,” said Sinclair. “And we need everyone—farmers, policymakers and researchers—to take part and to share what matters from your perspective.”
↓Watch the AMFM 2025 event highlight↓
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