Smallholder Performance Measurement

The Food Lab, GIZ and ISEAL co-hosted a series of learning events to better explore two connected themes on Living Income.

1. A common definition and methodology for Living Income Benchmark
2. Approaches to assessing actual farm and household incomes, and modeling the impact of different interventions.

The first theme is building on the ISEAL Global Living Wage Coalition’s work to establish a common methodology for Living Wage Benchmarks; the second focuses on how different organizations assess actual farmer and household incomes through farmer surveys, baseline studies, and secondary data.

Linked to that are various modeling approaches to understand the relative impact on household net income from change in key variables such as productivity, decreased cost of inputs, farm size and crop diversification.

Inspired by the dynamic of a living wage discussion in the garment sector, the living income debate is gaining more attention on the agenda of leaders in the public and private spheres.

The concepts of ‘living wage’ and ‘living income’ are both about achieving a decent standard of living for households. The idea of a living wage is applied in the context of hired workers (in factories, on farms). The idea of a living income is discussed in the context of any income earner, such as self- employed farmers.

There is growing interest among many supply chain actors in understanding whether smallholder farmers are actually earning a ‘living income’ and, if not, what it would take to get them there.

You can learn more about the Living Income Community of Practice and be added to their newsletter distribution list on their website. An overview of the Food Lab’s work on Living Income can be found here.

Copies of material developed and shared by partners is below.