smallholder farmers

This book by UNU-WIDER comprehensively evaluates trends in living conditions in 16 major sub-Saharan African countries, corresponding to nearly 75% of the total population. An important message from ten of the countries they looked at is that there are potentially high returns to policies that take agriculture seriously. Countries that place a particular emphasis on upgrading the capabilities of small-scale farmers are more likely to achieve broad-based development objectives. »

This working paper by CGAP examines how smallholder families manage their income and expenses and the issues they face that often lead to financial instability. CGAP conducted a nationally representative survey of smallholder households in Tanzania between August and September 2015. The report shares the findings, observations, and insights from the national survey. »

This report by the Agriculture Finance Support Facility’s (AgriFin) has two main chapters: the first deals with lessons learned from the design and implementation of AgriFin’s Technical Assistance program, while the second covers the lessons emerging from the design and implementation of the program. AgriFin aims to provide technical assistance and knowledge support primarily to financial institutions to help them develop their business models for financing smallholder farmers. »

This paper applies a historical analysis of the progressive development and complexity of Malawi’s diary innovation system through phased emphasis on technological, organizational and institutional development to illustrate the centrality of smallholder dairy farmers in the innovation system. A social network analysis is applied to assess the influence of smallholder farmers on other actors. »

This conference report provides a snapshot of the rich content and discussions from the Roundtable on Inclusive Agribusiness in Southeast Asia, held in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam on 23–24 September 2015. The Roundtable brought together approximately 120 business leaders, key development practitioners, policy makers and research experts, largely from Myanmar, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam. »

This paper presents an aligned yet customizable framework of indicators for measuring farm-level sustainability in smallholder agricultural supply chains. These indicators are proposed primarily in the context of performance measurement, but can also be useful for more in-depth impact evaluation studies. The ideas presented here are drawn from recent fieldwork of food and beverage companies, standards organizations, NGOs, and development agencies, and were synthesized as part of a community of practice led and facilitated by the Sustainable Food Lab. »