When people think of modern agriculture, vast industrial farms often come to mind. But behind much of the world’s food supply are smallholder farmers, tending just a few hectares of land, often with limited resources. In fact, smallholders produce one-third of the world’s food, making them the quiet backbone of global agriculture—and a key piece of the sustainability puzzle.
That’s why smallholder farmers are at the heart of our certification program. At the Rainforest Alliance, 99 percent of the farms certified against our Sustainable Agriculture Standard are smallholder farms. Every part of our program is designed with their needs, realities, and potential in mind—because when smallholders thrive, we see a powerful ripple effect across communities, landscapes, and throughout the supply chain.
99 percent of the farms certified against our Sustainable Agriculture Standard are smallholder farms.
What is a smallholder farmer?
Before we go any further, it’s important to define what we mean by a “smallholder farmer.”
According to internationally accepted definitions, such as those from the Food and Agriculture Organization and other voluntary sustainability standards, a smallholder farmer is one who cultivates less than 10 hectares of land. These farmers often face significant climate and economic challenges and rely on their farm as the main source of family income.
Smallholders’ realities can also vary significantly depending on geography and crop. An Indigenous coffee farmer in Peru, for example, will have different challenges and a different farm size than a farmer in Brazil or Kenya. That’s why any meaningful definition of smallholders must account for these local realities.
Why smallholders choose Rainforest Alliance certification
Our certification program has been specifically designed to tackle the biggest challenges faced by smallholders: human rights abuses, climate change, and rural poverty.
While many smallholders typically group together and pursue certification primarily to improve their market access, doing so also connects them with tools and practices that help address these broader challenges.
Advancing human rights
For many smallholder farmers, urgent risks such as child labor and gender inequality remain persistent. Our certification program tackles these issues head on by implementing targeted strategies, such as our assess-and-address approach, grievance mechanisms, and related trainings.
In Malawi, certification has had a positive impact for the Msuwadzi Association, which groups together more than 250 smallholder tea farmers. Since 2010, we have provided on-the-ground training on human-rights related topics; and in 2015, the group introduced gender equality awareness training through the Malawi Tea 2020 program, a national initiative supported by the Rainforest Alliance.
The results have been transformative. Just ask Victoria Nyalugwe, gender committee chairperson for the Msuwadzi Tea Association in Malawi. “Since we introduced the assess-and-address and gender committees, women feel empowered and confident to run for and get voted into various positions of the [cooperative’s] executive board,” she said. ”Before the implementation of these committees, these boards were dominated by men, and women often turned down the offer of a position as we felt inadequate to fill these roles.”
Boosting climate resilience
From floods to food insecurity, climate change is putting enormous pressure on farmers, especially smallholders who rely directly on the land for their livelihoods.
Rainforest Alliance certification helps smallholders build climate resilience through training in climate-smart growing practices. These techniques help farmers adapt to current impacts and prepare for future challenges, while also boosting productivity and incomes.
In Nicaragua, we’ve partnered with Microfinanciera Pueblos en Acción Comunitaria S.A.. since 2021 to support sustainable growing practices that improve crop quality and competitiveness in the coffee and cocoa markets. Darwin Castro, quality and risk manager for this group of smallholders, explained: “By adopting Rainforest Alliance farming practices, such as organic composting and planting fruit or forest trees alongside crops, our soil health has improved significantly, leading to better yields and quality.” He added, “We have seen an increase in production due to improved pruning of fruit trees and crops, which has promoted healthier and more vigorous plant growth.”
By adopting Rainforest Alliance farming practices, such as organic composting and planting fruit or forest trees alongside crops, our soil health has improved significantly, leading to better yields and quality.
Darwin Castro quality and risk manager, Microfinanciera Pueblos en Acción Comunitaria S.A.
Building better livelihoods
Poverty remains one of the toughest challenges smallholder farmers face. Without stable incomes, families struggle to meet basic needs—pushing some to clear forests for farmland or rely on child labor. In this way, poverty doesn’t just harm individual households; it also drives broader challenges like deforestation, human rights abuses, and environmental degradation.
Through certification, we help smallholders adopt more sustainable farming practices that protect ecosystems while boosting productivity—and importantly, we provide access to more rewarding markets for their products. We also work with companies to promote responsible business practices that recognize and reward farmers for sustainability transformation.
In Adzopé, Côte d’Ivoire, our support since 2020 has helped members of the SOCAAN cocoa cooperative (which brings together 1,370 smallholders) invest in their communities as well as their farms. “Certification allowed us to increase our production with better agricultural practices,” Adou Constant, SOCAAN sustainability manager said. “We’ve been able to improve the lives of people in our community by building two schools and funding income-generating activities like poultry farms for women in the cooperative.”
The path to certification: power in numbers
For most smallholders, the path to certification is reached through collaboration. Rather than certifying individually, they typically form or join cooperatives—formally registered groups that share one certificate.
Group certification brings advantages that are often out of reach for individual farmers. By sharing costs, smallholders make certification more affordable and manageable. They also gain stronger bargaining power to negotiate better prices for inputs, such as fertilizer, and crops. Cooperatives also often enjoy better access to credit, training, and logistical support.
We’re all in for smallholders—and we invite companies to join us
Smallholders are essential to the future of our food system. But they remain vulnerable—and they can’t build a better future alone. While certification isn’t a silver bullet, it’s a powerful step forward for people and nature. That’s why we’re making it work better for smallholders. In version 1.4 of our Sustainable Agriculture Standard, we’ve:
- Streamlined the number of requirements from 221 to 148 to support smallholders in efficiently implementing the standard
- Adjusted internal inspection requirements to give farm groups more flexibility
- Simplified data collection by aligning requirements with other certification schemes
These changes save time, reduce costs, and free up smallholders to focus on farming. But the responsibility for transformation shouldn’t fall solely on their shoulders. Companies have a critical role to play in supporting smallholders by committing to long-term sourcing relationships, paying sustainable prices, and investing in farmer-led solutions.
We’re doing our part to make certification more accessible and effective for smallholders, and we invite companies to join us, so that we can shape a better future for people and nature together.
