Smallholder farmers produce much of the world’s food supply, yet they lack access to the financial resources required to withstand severe weather events and changing climates. Between 2019 and 2020, small-scale agrifood systems received just 0.8% of global climate finance, according to the Climate Policy Initiative. Data from the Solidaridad Small Farmer Atlas, gathered from interviews with nearly 10,000 farmers in 18 countries, shows that almost two-thirds lack the funds to handle climate shocks.
Solidaridad’s position paper for COP31, From Ambition to Implementation: Making Climate Action Work for Farmers and Food Systems, identifies five systemic priorities to bridge this finance and implementation gap.
First, climate negotiations must accelerate the transition to climate-resilient agriculture. While individual projects show that diversification and regenerative practices protect yields, isolated farm-level efforts cannot withstand regional climate shocks without landscape-wide planning and long-term public funding. In Nicaragua, the Asómbrate programme works alongside 12,500 coffee and cocoa farmers to establish agroforestry, regenerate soil and diversify incomes. In Bangladesh, community management of more than 80 micro-watersheds has improved water access for over 90,000 farming households. In Zambia, smallholders are shifting from single-season cotton to year-round vegetable production to stabilise household income and boost food supply.
Second, agrifood companies must decarbonise supply chains while strengthening farmer resilience. Corporate climate strategies routinely fail to invest at the farm level, shifting costs and emissions reporting burdens onto rural producers. Research by Boston Consulting Group and CDP shows that only 15% of agribusinesses have set supply-chain Scope 3 targets. The Solidaridad Carbon Barometer, which reviewed disclosures from 138 food and agribusiness companies, revealed that half scored below the index midpoint. Very few corporate strategies reward or assist smallholders. Companies must translate mitigation targets into direct farm-level investment with simple verification processes.
Third, international institutions must make climate finance work on the ground. Complex application procedures, bureaucratic barriers and rigid commercial criteria shut small-scale producers out of international funding facilities. Funding mechanisms must provide direct, concessional finance that matches agricultural realities, such as seasonal revenue cycles and smaller investment sizes. Negotiators must measure success by the share of capital reaching local actors and the resulting gains in farmer resilience, rather than total sums mobilized.
Fourth, value chains must unlock circular, waste-to-value opportunities. Most commercial waste-to-value technology is engineered strictly for large industrial processing facilities, leaving smallholders and local cooperatives unable to afford or operate closed-loop systems. Field programmes demonstrate that decentralized, low-cost circular models work when tailored to smaller enterprises. In Peru, coffee farmers convert processing residues into biochar for soil treatment and make fuel pellets for cooking stoves. In Indonesia, an oil palm farmer collective works with local mills to convert processing by-products into organic compost. In India, sugarcane producers use crop residues as mulch to retain moisture and build soil organic matter.
Fifth, governments and donors must invest in youth-led climate action. The agricultural workforce continues to age because young people face systemic barriers, including lack of land tenure, high commercial borrowing costs and limited access to technical business training. Programmes that directly link practical skills to financing and commercial buyers prove that rural youth can establish viable enterprises. In South Africa, more than 1,700 young people have completed work-based learning across agricultural supply chains to set up commercial farming businesses. In Colombia, the School of Young Entrepreneurs, run alongside Nestlé, has trained 897 young coffee farmers since 2019 in business administration and market access.
All five priorities depend on a just transition that ensures women, young people and underrepresented farmers have direct decision-making power and equitable resources. Download the complete Solidaridad COP31 position paper below.