Rural finance
With access to finance, rural people can produce more, grow their enterprises, earn more and get through hard times.
Rural institutions and organizations - IFAD
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Rural institutions and organizations
70%
of food in low- and middle-income countries produced by small-scale farmers
of food in low- and middle-income countries produced by small-scale farmers
1.3 million
members of rural producers’ organizations supported in 2022
members of rural producers’ organizations supported in 2022
90%
of country strategies prepared alongside farmers’ organizations
of country strategies prepared alongside farmers’ organizations
©IFAD/Andrew Esiebo
By coming together in farmers’ organizations, rural people can increase their incomes and outputs, share knowledge and tools, access resources and services and influence policy through their collective voice.
Context
Small farms make up 84 per cent of all farms worldwide, most of which are managed by poor rural people.
Based in remote areas, the rural poor lack the basic infrastructure – banks, roads, power supplies and internet – needed to run a successful business.
Most cannot produce a large enough volume of products to interest buyers. Meanwhile, high transaction costs make it difficult to compete in markets.
Small-scale farmers often lack opportunities to negotiate better terms of trade for their products. They struggle to influence policies and programmes that concern them, or to hold organizations accountable for rural development. Their powerlessness is due to a lack of services and limited public goods.
By forming rural institutions, small-scale farmers can overcome the challenges of working in isolation. But such organizations, especially local ones, often lack the ability to leverage their knowledge and power for their members.
Opportunities
By coming together in farmers’ organizations, market associations and cooperatives, farmers and rural producers can:
increase their productivity and profitability
gain access to resources, services and markets
collectively purchase inputs and use infrastructure, thereby reducing the price
aggregate their produce to reach larger markets
exchange knowledge and share assets, such as machinery.
Organizations run by smallholder producers are crucial for rural development. They deliver services to their members and speak on their behalf. Moreover, they promote social cohesion and stability.
Organized groups are more likely to have their voices heard and their demands met than individuals alone. When farmer organizations and cooperatives join forces, they can influence policy so that it meets their diverse needs and realities.
What IFAD does
IFAD invests in and promotes farmers’ organizations. We help develop strong, accountable bodies that are integral parts of value chains.
We develop and empower grassroots organizations, like women and youth groups. The projects we support provide training and financing, strengthen institutions and build capacity for rural development. The mechanisms we pioneered are now part of national planning approaches across the world.
Rural producers and their organizations help design and implement the projects we support. We bring them together in public-private-producer partnerships (4Ps) that benefit small producers.
We develop the organizational capacity of larger organizations and rural institutions so that rural people can overcome social, political and economic barriers. For example, a collaboration with Senegal’s platform for farmers’ organizations is introducing farmer-led citizen feedback mechanisms.
Through our regional Farmers’ Organizations programmes, we strengthen over 100 farmers’ organizations in 69 countries. We channel funds to regional farmers’ organizations through mechanisms such as the Asian Pacific Farmers Programme and the Support to Farmers Organizations for Asia programme.
We engage farmers’ organizations in policy platforms, like the REAF Mercosur programme in Latin America, and supported the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation to improve regional legislation on cooperatives.
We support farmers’ organizations to speak out on global and national stages. We implement mechanisms, including the Food Systems Summit, World Agriculture Watch and the Global Action Plan of the UN Decade for Family Farming.
We host global and regional Farmers' Forums, bringing together farmers’ organizations representing small-scale farmers, IFAD and our Member States.
Quick links
Experts
Antonella Cianciotta
Technical Specialist (Global), Farmers' Organizations in Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (FO4ACP)
[email protected]Fanny Grandval
Senior Regional Technical Specialist (West and Central Africa), Rural Institutions
[email protected]Elizabeth Ssendiwala
Senior Regional Technical Specialist (Asia and the Pacific), Rural Institutions
[email protected]Luiz Claudio Marques Campos
Senior Regional Technical Specialist (Latin America and the Caribbean), Rural Institutions
[email protected]Sauli Hurri
Lead Global Technical Specialist (East and Southern Africa), Rural Institutions
[email protected]Marie Edward Mikhail
Country Technical Analyst (Near East, North Africa and Europe)
[email protected]