SMALLPAK - Innovations for resilient smallholder production systems in Punjab, Pakistan

Smallholder farmers in Pakistan face a wide range of challenges: low yields, increasing climatic and other environmental stresses, high input prices, and volatile markets. Nevertheless, their needs and vulnerabilities are often neglected in agricultural policy, which prioritizes modernization approaches that primarily benefit larger agricultural holdings and enterprises. National agricultural research primarily focuses on technical innovations and pays limited attention to the specific challenges, perspectives, and local knowledge of smallholder farmers. 

SMALLPAK addresses this gap in current agricultural research and policy in Pakistan. The aim is to place smallholder agriculture more firmly at the centre and to promote integrative and transdisciplinary perspectives on agricultural and food systems in both research and practice. 

The project focuses on the province of Punjab and examines how smallholder production systems can be strengthened in socially adapted and ecologically sustainable ways. Building on local knowledge and new technologies, innovative approaches are identified, assessed, and developed in close connection with practical application. 

The project is structured into three core modules: 

(1) local innovations that emphasize multifunctionality and integrated, resilient production practices; 
(2) digital innovations that support smallholder farmers in enhancing their production and managing climatic and environmental risks; and 
(3) organizational innovations that improve smallholders’ ac-cess to markets, inputs, and knowledge through new forms of social and economic cooperation.