Critical success factors for smallholder inclusion in high value-adding supply chains by food & agribusiness multinational enterprises

Food and Agribusiness Multinational Enterprises (F&A MNEs) increasingly wish to source from smallholders to secure and stabilize the supply of agricultural commodities in high value-adding supply chains, while contributing positively to smallholder livelihood. In the literature we found that many F&A MNEs have been involved in supporting smallholder farming systems in developing countries for a long time. However, these projects have principally been driven by Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies. Moreover, despite many pilots to include smallholders in high value-adding supply chains, scaling or scaling up successful pilots has so far proven elusive. The aim of the present article is to identify the critical success factors (CSFs) that can help F&A MNEs to design and implement sourcing strategies for sustainable smallholder supply from a business perspective, and to scale up successful pilot projects from a business perspective.