Abstract:

This report uses harmonized household and enterprise microdata from six sub-Saharan African countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Nigeria, Tanzania, Uganda) and four Latin American countries (Chile, El Salvador, Mexico, Peru) to reassess the role of smallholders in agrifood transformation. We classify small-scale producers (SSPs) by cultivated area and show that they are the dominant group of agricultural producers in all countries. SSPs account for the majority of crop producers and the bulk of agricultural production in our samples, even in diverse settings where medium and large farms are often seen as the main drivers of change. The analysis documents a strong market orientation among PPEs. A large majority of MPEs sell at least part of their crop, many buy modern inputs, and a non-negligible proportion are involved in agri-food and other non-farm MSMEs. This connects them to both output and input markets, rather than leaving them primarily as subsistence producers. We constructed a Cluster Index to capture territorial agri-food dynamism and an Inclusion Index that combines monetary well-being, food security, resilience and women’s empowerment. The results show that PPEs, and especially commercial PPEs, are concentrated in the most dynamic agri-food clusters. Within these clusters, commercialization and linkages with MSMEs are consistently associated with higher inclusion scores. Taken together, the findings show that small producers remain central to food production, are deeply linked to markets, and operate within spatial clusters that can sustain a more inclusive agri-food transformation.

Keywords: Small-scale producers (SSPs), Agrifood transformation, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Market orientation, MSMEs, Cluster Index, Inclusion Index, Food security, Women’s empowerment.