San José, 2 March 2026 (IICA). The Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) will promote the Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment and Promotion (SHEP) approach in Latin America and the Caribbean, with the aim of increasing incomes among this population, strengthening food security and reducing poverty in the region.
SHEP is an agricultural extension methodology originally developed in Kenya through Japanese technical cooperation, which seeks to empower farmers to become autonomous managers and adopt a market-oriented approach to agriculture.
Now implemented in more than 60 countries, the approach encourages family farmers to shift from “produce and then sell” to “produce to sell”, through training in market research, crop planning and demand-based decision-making.
Application of this methodology has resulted in average income increases of over 70% among family horticulture producers within a two-year period, driven by greater market orientation, improved production planning and strengthened business capacities.
“Any cooperation agreement truly shines only when it is implemented as agreed, and I trust that this marks the beginning of a very fruitful relationship that will translate into concrete actions to improve the lives of small-scale farmers”, said Keisuke Ito, Director General of JICA’s Latin America and the Caribbean Department.
“The SHEP approach offers significant opportunities for family farmers to become true managers of their production systems. With support and joint efforts, we can take on the ambitious commitment of improving the living conditions of many farmers and innovating in strategies to strengthen technical assistance and rural extension services”, said Lloyd Day, Deputy Director General of IICA.
IICA and the Japanese agency signed a five-year partnership agreement that will take its first steps in March 2026 in Bolivia, through the project “Operationalizing climate-resilient agriculture as a business: a strategic ‘Last Mile’ partnership for the Adaptation Fund,” which includes the SHEP approach.
The initiative in Bolivia will run for two years and is supported by a strategic alliance involving governmental, academic and international cooperation institutions, with IICA serving as executing agency. It seeks to empower small-scale producers as entrepreneurs capable of addressing climate shocks and ultimately aims to institutionalize the model to strengthen financial security and adaptive capacity among rural families.
In addition, IICA and JICA are exploring options to implement the SHEP approach in Paraguay, Central America and the Caribbean.
Actions to transform family farming
As part of their joint work, IICA and JICA organized a seminar in San José that brought together more than 250 representatives of international organizations, cooperation agencies, specialists and key stakeholders from the agricultural sector in over 20 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean. Participants discussed how to strengthen support strategies for market-oriented family farming and institutional coordination.
Jiro Aikawa, Senior Advisor at JICA, explained that the approach transforms agricultural extension by reducing information gaps between producers and buyers. “The SHEP motto is clear: agriculture is a business. When producers study the market before planting and understand who will buy their product and at what quality, they can significantly improve their income”, he said.
During the seminar, participants addressed the main challenges facing family farming in Latin America and the Caribbean, where it accounts for 80% of agricultural holdings, employs 60 million people and produces 50% of the food consumed locally. In short, it is a pillar of regional food security.
Mario León, IICA’s Manager of Territorial Development and Family Farming, explained that family farmers in Latin America and the Caribbean face structural challenges that limit their development, including low productivity, climate vulnerability, limited market access, connectivity gaps and land tenure constraints.
“Overcoming these barriers requires differentiated policies, stronger organizational capacity and increased investment in innovation and digitalization to unlock the economic and social potential of millions of small-scale producers”, he said.
The seminar concluded with a panel analyzing strategies to help smallholder farmers increase incomes and overcome poverty, strengthen resilience to climate change and gain more competitive access to markets.
Luis Pocasangre, Director General of the Tropical Agricultural Research and Higher Education Center (CATIE), emphasized the need to place markets at the center of production decisions. “We should not speak of subsistence agriculture, but of producers with business potential. If we do not know how much it costs to produce or which variety consumers want, we cannot turn agriculture into a true business”, he said.
Yumara Soria, Regional Coordinator of the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC), stressed the importance of redefining small farmers as entrepreneurs and strengthening rural extension services. “We must stop viewing small farmers only as subsistence producers and treat them as agricultural entrepreneurs, providing them with information, financing and, above all, real access to markets; producing without knowing for what or for whom does not transform their reality”, she said.
Nelson Larrea, from the Technical Analysis and Evaluation Directorate of the Private Sector at the CAF – Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, highlighted the relationship between profitability and sustainability.
“There can be no sustainability if the producer is not prosperous; it must first be a profitable activity that motivates families to remain in rural areas, and only then can we speak of environmental sustainability and resilience. Financing requires a strong technical component in the territory; methodologies such as SHEP ensure that resources are effectively translated into sustainable business models with impact”, he concluded.
More information:
Institutional Communication Division.
comunicacion.institucional@iica.int
