UK Department for International Development

UK Aid Poised to Wipe Out Smallholder Agriculture

In 2015, the UK Department for International Development (DFID) adopted a new Conceptual Framework on Agriculture. This new long-term strategy promotes commercialization and agroindustry development to enable a “rural transition” that would allow the majority of the rural poor to exit “primary agricultural production.” Under DFID’s vision, smallholder farmers, who currently produce 70 percent of the food consumed worldwide, are expected to become workers participating in market oriented food production or to find off-farm job opportunities. As a result, DFID’s aid to agriculture in the developing world openly favors large-scale, agroindustry-led initiatives.