Smallholder farming family in a cabbage field in Honduras
Small farms produce almost half of the world’s food needs. © SDC/Fritz R. Staehelin

Smallholders and family farms play a key role in feeding the world's growing population and creating and preserving jobs in rural areas. They can also help to stem migration. In order to stay in business, smallholders need access to stable markets, infrastructure adapted to their needs, and access to education, training and financial and information services. The SDC helps them to adapt to change and to boost production in a sustainable way.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations  defines smallholders as small-scale farmers, pastoralists, forest keepers and fishers who manage areas of less than 10 hectares. Smallholder farms are characterised by family-focused motives and it is the families who are responsible for everything from production to farm maintenance. Part of what is produced is consumed by the family itself. Smallholder farming is about a third less productive than large-scale farming. Despite this fact – or indeed because of it – Switzerland is convinced that supporting smallholder and family farming contributes to alleviating world hunger and poverty.

The SDC's support for smallholders and family farms in developing countries mainly consists of assisting them to adapt to climate change, to changing available means and methods of production, as well as to new market demands in order to boost and improve their production.

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Current projects

Object 85 – 96 of 161

Sustainable water management for food security and nutrition in agriculture and food systems

01.04.2018 - 31.03.2027

Agriculture accounts globally for 70% freshwater use. Inefficient water use, water pollution, climate change and increasing global water demand puts agriculture under pressure, as well for smallholders. SDC can build on successful experiences in this domain and will support projects in Africa in ecologically sustainable water management in smallholder agriculture and food systems, improve smallholders’ economic and social situation and increase the resilience of their livelihoods.


Proyecto de Apoyo a una Agricultura Sostenible en Cuba PAAS

01.04.2018 - 31.12.2021

PAAS promueve las bases de un modelo de gestión para el autoabastecimiento local de alimentos, en 22 municipios, que involucra a instituciones, gobiernos, productores y consumidores, y fomenta mejoras en la producción agroecológica, procesamiento, certificación y comercialización a nivel local para 6 cadenas de valor (frutas, miel, hortalizas, oleaginosas, yuca y pollo); a la vez que se genera confianza de los consumidores, mayor acceso a alimentos sanos y nuevos empleos.


RUNRES: The rural-urban nexus: Establishing a nutrient loop to improve city region food systems.

01.04.2018 - 30.04.2023

Implemented by the Institute for sustainable Agroecosystems of ETHZ, RUNRES will seek to improve the resilience and sustainability of food systems in four different rural-urban regions across Africa. It will encourage nutrient & waste recycling by installing and redirecting the byproducts of innovative, ecological, hygienically safe sanitation solutions. The organic matter may then serve as an input for smallholder producers to generate a circular flow of nutrients in agriculture, reinvigorating thus regional food systems.


Blue Lifelines – Safeguarding Wetlands in the Sahel

01.04.2018 - 30.06.2023

The relevance of wetlands for food security and nutrition is underestimated worldwide and in the Sahel in particular. Experiences from the project sites in Mali and Ethiopia and from previous efforts have the potential to change Sahelian and global approaches and to be scaled-up through attracting investments by international financing institutions. The project is implemented by Wetlands International, Caritas Switzerland and a Swiss technology company hydrosolutions Ltd.


Entrepreneuriats Stratégiques Pour des Opportunités d’Investissements Renforcés (ESPOIR)

01.03.2018 - 30.06.2022

Ce programme contribue à l’émergence des microentreprises privées béninoises de jeunes et des Petites et Moyennes Entreprises (PME) agroalimentaires pour assurer une croissance économique durable, une augmentation d’emplois et de revenus, et une alimentation nutritive (sécurité alimentaire). Il porte l’espoir de toute une génération d’entrepreneurs, et permet de répondre en partie au défi démographique par la création d’emplois.


Programme d'Appui à la Promotion de l'Entreprenariat Agricole (PAPEA)

01.03.2018 - 31.05.2023

Au Burkina Faso, les entreprises agricoles sont peu développées et à prédominance informelles et individuelles. Les contraintes multiples, dont le faible accès aux services non financiers et financiers, réduisent leur productivité et créent moins de valeur ajoutée. S’appuyant sur l’expertise suisse en matière d’inclusion financière, la DDC soutiendra le secteur privé agricole (micro et petites entreprises) afin de créer des emplois décents pour les jeunes et des femmes et ainsi contribuer à réduire la pauvreté.


PIAL – “Proyecto para fortalecer un Sistema de Innovación Agropecuaria para el Desarrollo Local”

01.02.2018 - 31.07.2022

PIAL fomenta capacidades locales para gestionar los problemas de las cadenas agro-alimentarias en 75 municipios, contribuyendo al incremento de la disponibilidad de alimentos. Así, se institucionaliza y extiende en el país un Sistema de Innovación Agropecuaria Local (SIAL), con espacios y mecanismos para la participación de agricultores, autoridades y otros actores locales en la solución de estos problemas. 


GPFS Innovation Platforms

01.02.2018 - 31.12.2021

Since an improved participation of all agricultural stakeholders in research, innovation and development discussions is crucial for finding solutions to feed 9 Billion people by 2050, SDC supports networks which emphasize dynamic relationships between a broad range of social actors (e.g. farmers, scientists, private sector, civil society etc.) to facilitate exchange of information and experience among agricultural stakeholders.


Inovagro Private Sector Led Rural Growth

02.01.2018 - 31.12.2021

Inovagro aims at increasing the incomes of poor farmers in Northern Mozambique, through ‘pro-poor’ private sector development. It improves farmers’ access to inputs and markets through local private, public and civil society partners. Phase III will consolidate the work of previous phases and focus on scale-up and replicability of successful interventions. There will also be a stronger focus on women inclusion, risk reduction, communication and knowledge sharing based on lessons learnt over the past years.


Programme d’appui à une gouvernance agricole inclusive en Haïti (PAGAI)

01.01.2018 - 31.12.2029

Le programme PAGAI vise à améliorer l’accès de 55’000 exploitations familiales haïtiennes à un cadre politique et des services agricoles appropriés. Pour y arriver, le programme va accompagner les organisations des producteurs ruraux (organisations paysannes), qui seront renforcées dans leur gouvernance interne, dans leur rôle de concertation/négociation de services et dans leur capacité de défendre les intérêts et plaider pour les paysannes et paysans d’Haïti.


Generating Rubber Opportunities project (GRO)

01.01.2018 - 30.09.2022

The production of natural rubber is a key livelihood activity of farmers in Mon and Kayin State and northern Tanintharyi region. CARE International is mandated to implement a Market Systems Development project to work with all market actors and particularly the support institutions (meso level) for improving information, market access and access to inputs for 25,000 farmers as well as improving working conditions of particularly women in rubber plantations.


Cocoa value chain

Cocoa Chain Value Family

01.01.2018 - 31.12.2023

Actors in the Central American cocoa value chain improve their productivity, establish public-private alliances, respect economic, social and cultural rights, and reduce their environmental impact. Thanks to the program 4,500 producer families will increase their net annual income by at least 10%, while 4,000 young adults and 2,000 women gain access to sustainable jobs. This will boost the local economy in the poor and peripheral areas in which cocoa is grown.  

Object 85 – 96 of 161