Tools of war, hands of hope
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In the context of Syria’s protracted crisis, livestock-rearing households are struggling with high feed prices, reduced access to pasture, and increasing climate-related pressures. In Aleppo, a Farmer Field School (FFS) facilitated by FAO became the birthplace of an impactful, low-cost innovation: a manual fodder compressor using ammunition boxes to press dried alfalfa into compact bales, designed by participant Abdullah Tobal, a smallholder livestock keeper, who found the empty boxes abandoned in his field. The innovation emerged directly from the FFS learning process, which focused on sustainable livestock and fodder production, and identified lack of access to fodder as a key bottleneck. The hand-operated compressor, made with waste material, reduces labor, cuts feed costs, and is now shared freely with other producers and has been widely taken up by practitioners. This story exemplifies how the FFS approach based on participatory learning, experimentation, and peer support can promote grassroots open innovation, even in the most challenging settings.