Independent smallholders produce a significant share of the world’s palm oil but remain underrepresented in the traceable, certified, and compliant supply chains increasingly shaping market access. The Global Palm Oil Outlook 2025 finds that barriers to participation are often structural rather than farm-level, and that progress is strongest where sustainability requirements, government action, landscape and jurisdictional approaches, and supply-chain actors work together to address traceability, legality, productivity, and market access. As sustainability requirements become more stringent, the sector’s ability to achieve deforestation-free production, improve livelihoods, and maintain resilient landscapes increasingly depends on producers who remain least able to participate in them. Expanding practical pathways for participation will require coordinated action that connects producer support, traceability, finance, and forest protection at scale. Landscape and jurisdictional approaches offer one of the strongest mechanisms for achieving this.
Region:
Luwero, Nakaseke, Kassanda, Mubende, Bukomansimbi, Kyotera, Omoro, and Nwoya
Target group:
Smallholder farmers, traders, state and non state actors, and processors
Key activities:
- Capacity building of smallholder coffee farmers in production practices and sustainable land use management.
- Establishing traceability system and facilitating access to sustainable financing
- Facilitate inclusive business partnerships between producer organizations and supply chain actors
- Promote multi-stakeholder cooperation
Commodities:
