Summary
Smallholder farmers play a key role in global agricultural production and consequently in the production of certified crops. However, what do we know about our collective reach to smallholders and who we work with? This paper addresses this central question and combines monitoring data with external research to gain insights into the characteristics of the farmers we work with. Other questions it explores are:
• What do we know about how many smallholders we are reaching in our systems?
• What can we say about the characteristics of smallholders in our systems?
• How do schemes work with smallholders? What are the barriers to participation?
• Are ISEAL member schemes reaching the poor?
The analysis focuses on seven focus ISEAL member agriculture schemes operating in seven key commodity sectors. Scheme data is primarily from a collective reporting initiative led by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL). The paper also draws on relevant recent research that explores the characteristics of smallholders within ISEAL member agrarian schemes including three recently published impact evaluations commissioned by ISEAL.
This paper is the first attempt to draw on internal performance monitoring data of schemes and external research to analyse the reach and characteristics of smallholder farmers within ISEAL member agriculture schemes. This is the third in a series of collective reporting briefing papers researched by ISEAL as part of the ‘Demonstrating and Improving Poverty Impacts’ (DIPI) project. The other two briefings addressed trends on the geographic reach and scope of ISEAL member schemes and multiple certification in the cocoa and coffee sectors.