Toolkit: Engaging with farmers’ organizations for more effective smallholder development

Smallholder farmers use different strategies to improve their market presence and to capture more value added in the agricultural sector. These strategies include the creation of cooperatives and other farmers’ organizations (FOs). FOs exist today in all countries and in most rural areas, although at different levels of development and capacity. At the national or supranational levels, these organizations are more and more involved in policy dialogue, where they can influence the design and implementation of agricultural public policies and programmes. Also, they can be significant economic players, providing a wide range of key economic services to their members to support profitable engagement with markets, thus contributing to sustained growth and to tackling the challenge of reducing rural poverty.

This toolkit provides guidance on developing sustainable partnerships with farmers’ organizations (FOs) within IFAD projects that consider FOs as relevant partners and not simply as beneficiaries of IFAD-funded activities.