Key Insights and Takeaways from the #IGrowYourFood 2025 Webinar
Farmer-Led Futures: Building Sustainable Organic Enterprises from the Ground Up
25 September 2025 – Over 100 participants from across the world joined IFOAM – Organics International and Inter-Continental Network of Organic Farmers Organisations (INOFO) for a timely webinar exploring farmer-led initiatives to build self-sufficient and resilient enterprises.
The event featured speakers from Samoa, India, Kenya, and Switzerland, each sharing their unique experiences and innovations in areas such as agritourism, farm cooperatives, organic entrepreneurship, and strategic communications:
- Floris Niu, Ms Sunshine Organic Farms, Samoa
- Devesh Patel, One Gujarat Farm Producers Co-operative Society, India
- Sylvia Kuria, Sylvia’s Basket, Kenya
- Pauline Buffle, Foundation for Farmers Organisations and Restorative Action, Switzerland
Moderated by Thales Mendonça, INOFO Global Relationship Manager, the session centred on financial and enterprise models developed by and for smallholder family farmers, who, despite farming less than 2 hectares, collectively produce over one-third of the world's food.
Speakers demonstrated how local innovations can serve as global blueprints, adaptable to a wide range of contexts and regions, while placing farmers at the centre of enterprise and system transformation.
Highlights and Key Takeaways:
- Floris returned to Samoa from New Zealand to practise organic farming, using indigenous methods that protect traditional crops and respect the rhythms of nature.
- Initially relying solely on local farmers’ markets, her farm began producing by-products from unsold items, eventually leading to their own chocolate production.
- Their agritourism model features fully plant-based meals grown onsite, traditional earth-oven cooking and post-harvest cacao processing.
- Agritourism has diversified income sources and offers a rich “tree-to-table” educational experience for visitors.
- One Gujarat connects small and marginal organic farmers across the region through a unified platform, offering services such as value addition, training, processing, packaging, labelling, local and global marketing, and export opportunities.
- It is the first farmers’ cooperative in India to adopt blockchain for traceability, supply chain management, and quality assurance.
- In 2023, One Gujarat was invited by the Import Promotion Desk (IPD) Germany to showcase their products and business model at BIOFACH 2024.
- Sylvia identified market access as a major barrier for trained organic farmers, preventing them from earning the premium income needed to scale up production.
- She advocates for policy support for organic entrepreneurship and collaborates with the Organic Academy of IFOAM – Organics International and Kenyan trainers on a pilot curriculum soon to be released as a ready-to-use global toolkit.
- Her business, Sylvia’s Basket, demonstrates how entrepreneurial thinking can elevate organic produce through branding, value addition and direct sales.
- The Foundation for Farmers’ Organisations and Restorative Action (FFORA) supports family farmers with social media strategies and storytelling to strengthen policy influence.
- In partnership with a strategic communications agency, FFORA provides targeted training on platform selection, media outreach and messaging.
- The organisation also uses research and statistics to shape effective advocacy campaigns.
7 Years of #IGrowYourFood – Looking Back and Forward
As we mark the 7th year of the #IGrowYourFood campaign, the first global action day celebrating the people who sustainably grow and handle our food, the need for such a platform is more urgent than ever.
This campaign has grown into a vibrant space where farmers share their challenges, solutions and practices with the organic community and beyond. Looking forward, we remain committed to cultivating this space with farmers, amplifying their voices, visibility and influence at policymaking tables, in markets and across food systems.
Resources
- Watch the webinar recording on YouTube (click here to view)
- Download Zoom webinar here (password: #IGrowYourFood2025)
- Access the presentation materials, download them here
- Additional reads on our blog:
The views expressed in this webinar are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the official position of IFOAM – Organics International.