Scaling impact: Improving smallholder farmers' beneficial access to output markets

The report is a review of a USAID-sponsored Leveraging Economic Opportunities (LEO) initiative, which looks at how projects using a market-oriented approach have sought to address the key barriers to improved access to output markets by smallholder farmers.  

Intervention description

The projects included in the review aim to improve smallholder farmers' access to input and output markets, through strategies such as reducing procurement costs, encouraging longer-term engagement, addressing institutional structures and providing new commercial opportunities. In this way, the projects seeks to liberate farmers from patterns of semi-subsistence farming and consequently increase their income. 

Evidence methodology

The report was compiled through qualitative methods, relying heavily on current and past project staff and project documents. Phone-based interviews were conducted and a total of 50 projects and 10 more detailed cases were reviewed. In these documents, results of projects with a market-oriented approach were identified. The report also categorised the different strategic approaches taken in relation to the outcomes they sought to achieve. 

Useful for:

Anyone looking to design or implement programmes to improve smallholder farmers' access to output markets.