Smallholder farmers are critical to global food security and economic growth, but despite their importance, the private sector has largely overlooked this market given perceived risks and skepticism about their commercial viability as a market segment. 
 
To make headway in addressing this challenge, USAID’s Investment Support Program (implemented by Dalberg Advisors) assessed the effectiveness of the USAID Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation (P4I) program (implemented by Fintrac), which provides companies targeting the smallholder market with investment tied to milestone-based outcomes, along with tailored support services designed to build managerial and operational capacity. 
 
This assessment was a rare and important opportunity to assess the effectiveness of market-based solutions that bring agricultural innovations and services to smallholder farmers. Among other insights, Dalberg’s analysis found that the milestone-based grant funding was largely successful in catalyzing companies’ entry into and growth within the smallholder market, providing promising evidence for future programs of its kind in smallholder agriculture, and perhaps other hard-to-reach sectors. 
 
Learn more about our findings in the report, “Partnering with the private sector to reach smallholder farmers: Lessons on private sector engagement from the USAID Feed the Future Partnering for Innovation program.”