Smallholder farmers are essential to building a sustainable food system that benefits people and the planet. As the world confronts the triple challenge of needing to produce more healthy food with less ecological impact in an increasingly difficult growing environment, engaging farmers is our first line of action.
Heifer International collaborates with smallholder farmers, their communities and a range of partners to transform food systems to increase farming households’ resilience, increase sustainable food production and ensure healthy ecosystems.
Our environmental approach is grounded in regenerative agriculture principles that produce healthy food and care for the Earth.
We promote climate-smart practices that help farmers build resilience to climate change and improve biodiversity and livelihoods.
Our programs integrate the One Health concept to build food systems that balance human, animal and environmental health.
We strengthen access to climate information and financial services so farmers can adapt to the effects of climate change.
We partner with farmers and market actors to scale sustainable and safe food production.
We monitor the carbon footprint of our operations to plan more impactful programs and support climate targets.
Heifer’s environmental strategy, called Caring for the Earth, seeks to accelerate pathways to transform smallholder food systems to build farming communities’ resilience, increase production of sustainable and safe food, and increase ecosystem health, in service of our mission to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth.
Our C4E strategy targets smallholder farmers because they are both highly vulnerable to climate impacts and uniquely positioned to implement agricultural activities that can lead to positive environmental change. When we invest in smallholder farmers, we invest in a healthier planet.
The C4E strategy is driven by regenerative agriculture principles, tailored for regional contexts and applied to program design to achieve systems-level impacts on livelihoods and household food security, food systems and ecological preservation, in collaboration with smallholder farming communities.
In addition to the environmental benefits, regenerative agriculture practices also emphasize farmer well-being by promoting fair and equitable contracts and pricing for farmers as workers and value chain actors.
Regenerative agriculture is at the center of our environmental strategy. The principles- and outcomes-based approach of regenerative agriculture offers diverse and sustainable practices that smallholder farmers can choose from to increase the volume and reliability of their crop yields by improving the health of the environment. This, in turn, increases smallholder livelihoods and food security and contributes to sustainable food systems and a healthy environment.
Under the umbrella of regenerative agriculture and in partnership with smallholder farming communities, Heifer’s programs select specific methodologies that are appropriate for the context and the needs of the community and are most likely to address the challenges facing farmers. These include climate-smart agriculture, integrated landscape management, agroecology, organic production and One Health. Some of the regenerative practices promoted through these various methodologies include composting and waste management, companion planting, cover cropping, agroforestry, vermiculture, rotational grazing, circular agriculture, silvopasture, water harvesting and maintaining fodder plots.
Smallholder farmers are integral to improving sustainable food production as both producers of nutritious food and stewards of essential landscapes and ecosystems.
To address the goals of increasing food production while reducing vulnerability to climate change and reducing ecological impacts, we start by engaging farming communities through a holistic management planning process to match the local context to appropriate solutions.
Most smallholder farming systems are diversified, integrating many crops and livestock to provide income and food over the course of the year. Livestock often play an essential role in smallholder farming communities, providing both critical nutritional benefits as well as key assets, especially for women smallholder farmers.
Livestock, when well-integrated into regenerative food systems, can yield multiple benefits to farmers, the surrounding community and the environment. Heifer supports farmers to adopt holistic management and safe livestock production standards that benefit both producers and consumers and prioritize ecosystem health.
Throughout our work with livestock we apply the One Health approach and other nature-positive principles to help farming households develop and adopt practices which, when properly implemented, can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, regenerate degraded landscapes and improve animal health and well-being, while addressing household nutritional deficiencies and boosting incomes. These practices include rotational grazing, composting and waste management, reforestation of native plant species and cultivating fodder.
We also apply our environmental strategy across the entire food system by identifying ways to create resilient and safe linkages to consumers and improve smallholder communities’ equitable access to renewable energy solutions, such as solar powered irrigation to provide adequate water during droughts, solar refrigeration to store products safely during transport to markets and solar electric fencing to support rotational grazing.
Our environmental strategy, Caring for the Earth, anchors climate-smart and regenerative practices in our programs to support smallholder farming communities to sustainably improve their livelihoods and strengthen their climate resilience.
Our three-pronged approach focuses on increased resilience of smallholder farming communities to climate, environment and economic challenges; sustainable intensification and increased efficiency of local food systems; and increased health of natural ecosystems.
We accelerate positive outcomes in these focus areas through initiatives that improve production, capacity and income at the farm level; enhance resource management and reduce pollution and food spoilage in market systems; and contribute to broader environmental health, including better soil health, decreased erosion, increased biodiversity and improved animal well-being.
We also work to improve farmers’ climate preparedness and ability to recover from climate shocks by facilitating access to profitable markets, improving the availability of extension services and climate information, and connecting them to financial tools, such as loans and crop insurance, that build long-term economic stability.
Our annual global impact monitoring process includes measuring progress toward several indicators of smallholder farmer households’ resilience, sustainable food systems and healthy ecosystems. These include household income and access to credit and savings; adoption of climate-smart, waste reduction and animal health and well-being practices; and greenhouse gas emissions.
Starting in 2025 we are expanding our Caring for the Earth initiative to understand usage of extension services and land use and disaster plans; broader implementation of sustainable practices and farm-level productivity; and improvements in environmental health, such as soil quality and water quantity.
This document outlines Heifer’s regenerative agriculture approach and highlights case studies showing how farmers use our support to protect and restore ecosystems, build inclusive food systems and improve their communities.
Download About Advancing Regenerative Agriculture for Thriving Ecosystems and CommunitiesHeifer’s climate-smart and environmentally friendly approach to supporting smallholder farmers to earn a living income from agriculture.
Download About Advancing Climate Adaptation for Smallholder FarmersThe One Health approach recognizes the interconnectedness of human, animal and environmental health.
Download About One Health Strategy Document
