The Smallholder Innovation Accelerator

Since summer 2020, Innovation Forum has been running an action research project to develop actionable lessons which can build durable commodity supply chains based on smallholder farming. This project was established to respond to the fact that, despite almost decades of effort by companies, campaigners, NGOs and others, considerable social and environmental challenges still remain in smallholder-based commodity supply chains.

The project brings together six varied organisations to share the lessons they have learned over many years, and also builds on a comprehensive review of various reports, papers and other written information. It also aims to look at commodity value chains in their wider context – at societal and international level. To that end, it brings in perspectives from areas of expertise such as development economics, anthropology and political economy.

Our aim is to identify the key challenges which need to be addressed, and to identify collaborative approaches to do this. We will develop a clear assessment of the challenges, and then publish a yearly Smallholder Innovation Accelerator to track progress.