Personal tools
You are here: Home Issues Agriculture

Agriculture

More than 70 percent of poor people rely on agriculture for their income. But for the world’s estimated 400 million small-scale farmers, farming can also be a tremendously precarious way of life. From helping farmers survive changes in weather to ensuring that they receive a fair price for their crops, Oxfam helps make sure family farmers around the world can earn a decent living.

Oxfam partners with small-scale farmers around the world to confront the challenges that keep them from earning a decent living.

OXFAMExchange Winter 2009
These are extraordinary times
OXFAMExchange Fall 2008
A root revolution in Cambodia
Working together to end poverty and injustice
An overview of Oxfam America and our approach to poverty relief and lasting social change.
Oxfam in the Horn of Africa
Drought. Conflict. Low crop prices. These are among the realities that poor people across the Horn of Africa face on a daily basis. But with new tools for channeling water, building peace, and influencing markets, people are beginning to wrest control over their lives.
Oxfam in South America
To their government officials and to the corporations who want to exploit their lands and natural resources, the indigenous and rural people of South America have a simple, yet important message: "We are here."
OXFAMExchange Fall 2005
The Chance to End Poverty
OXFAMExchange Winter 2005
Come Together: Building a movement to overcome poverty and change the world
OXFAMExchange Spring 2003
Red Tomato, ethnic discrimination and the Mayan defense, clearing landmines in Afghanistan, and community radio breathes life into democracy in Senegal
OXFAMExchange Winter 2003
Mary Robinson on human rights, functional literacy in West Africa, and saving the family farm
OXFAMExchange Fall 2002
What's in your coffee? Oxfam's coffee campaign. Plus Afghanistan, Make Trade Fair campaign, and the Hopi people's struggle for clean, safe drinking water.
More publications
Investing in Poor Farmers Pays
Rethinking how to invest in agriculture
Shut Out
How US farm programs fail minority farmers
How Does the USDA Farm Bill Proposal Measure Up?
Fairness in the Fields
A vision for the 2007 Farm Bill
Grounds for Change
Market volatility and declining terms of trade, along with inadequate access to infrastructure, financial resources, and market information, put sustainable livelihoods out of reach for millions of rural families.
Cuba: Going Against the Grain
More research
Oxfam America Organizing Guide
Tips for taking action in your community
Oxfam America House Party Guide
Tools for hosting a high-impact event
Take Action: Global Food Crisis
Already 854 million people on our planet suffer from hunger. Now, as food prices climb high and fast, conditions are becoming worse and threatening the well-being of millions more people.
More tools for activists
The singing wells of Dubluq
How herders in southern Ethiopia find water for their cows in the deadly winter dry season.
More water, more food
An improved irrigation channel in Ethiopia now delivers a steady supply of water to a small village called Shasha Korke.
A Seat at the Table
Step into the world where food is often scarce and difficult decisions have to be made every day.
Thank you from Oxfam and Ethiopian coffee farmers
Starbucks and Ethiopia finalized a trademark agreement, ending their dispute and bringing both sides together in partnership to help Ethiopian farmers.
More multimedia

Features Subscribe | View All

Looking to Sacha Inchi for their future

Looking to Sacha Inchi for their future

How indigenous farmers are growing an ancient plant that promises to bring new opportunities—and money—to the central Amazonian jungle.

Read more

Forecasting a better future

Forecasting a better future

The progress of a village in India that participated in a study on rainfall illustrates the value of research in helping farming communities adapt to climate change.

Read more

Drawing water to a thirsty village

Drawing water to a thirsty village

In the aftermath of the tsunami, Oxfam helped an impoverished farming community in Sri Lanka find a solution to its most devastating chronic emergency: drought.

Read more

Sri Lanka paddy research to improve lives of rice farmers

Sri Lanka paddy research to improve lives of rice farmers

In the aftermath of the tsunami, some studies focused on the issue of how after a disaster an aid agency can help survivors not only restore but improve their incomes.

Read more

Valley of the sugar mills

Valley of the sugar mills

How Cuba went from intensive monoculture to diverse organic crops in just five years.

Read more

Training and jobs to empower rural women

Training and jobs to empower rural women

The construction of greenhouses creates employment, which empowers them economically, while training leads to the emergence of new women leaders.

Read more

Oxfam in Cuba

Oxfam in Cuba

After 15 years of economic crisis, Cuba is still facing significant challenges. But there are real signs that Cuba is starting to move forward.

Read more

Cuba: Emerging from the crisis

Cuba: Emerging from the crisis

After 15 years of economic crisis, Cuba is still facing significant challenges. But there are real signs that Cuba is starting to move forward.

Read more

Haiti no longer grows much of its own rice

Haiti no longer grows much of its own rice

Once almost self-sufficient, Haiti now imports 80 percent of the rice it consumes. A dramatic cut in import tariffs led to a drop in national rice production.

Read more

Coffee growers earn a better price, protect the environment

Coffee growers earn a better price, protect the environment

Oxfam America invests in eco-friendly coffee processing, and helps farmers grow a world-class crop.

Read more

Oxfam, CIW celebrate Burger King's promise of a wage hike

Oxfam, CIW celebrate Burger King's promise of a wage hike

A penny a pound more for the tomatoes they pick could mean a near doubling of wages for Florida field laborers.

Read more

Building a better well

Building a better well

Steady supply of water in rehabilitated well brings joy to a community in southern Ethiopia.

Read more

Pasture pressure

Pasture pressure

Erratic rains and encroaching bush limits grasslands for herders in southern Ethiopia.

Read more

Global ambitions

Global ambitions

A steady supply of water expands horizons for farmer in Ethiopia.

Read more

Movie helps farmers learn new "language" to grow more rice

Movie helps farmers learn new "language" to grow more rice

Oxfam and partner CEDAC produce new instructional video on cutting-edge agriculture technique.

Read more

Hope for rural Afghans

Hope for rural Afghans

Education is the basis for a rural development project that has helped put food on the table for people in the Daikundi and Bamiyan provinces, where weather-related hardships can easily plunge families into hunger.

Read more

Going organic to cope with a changing climate

Going organic to cope with a changing climate

To protect their crops from drought and pests, small-scale farmers in The Philippines are pioneering new organic farming techniques.

Read more

UN report: Cambodia's rural people among its poorest

UN report: Cambodia's rural people among its poorest

Oxfam partner, CEDAC, responds through programs that teach farmers how to save and improve their agricultural production.

Read more

Small scale coffee farmers make headway in new international coffee charter

Small scale coffee farmers make headway in new international coffee charter

After long period of negotiations, a successful conclusion.

Read more

Feeding a nation

Feeding a nation

With financial support from Oxfam America, our partner in Cambodia is teaching farmers how to raise rice yields and use extra profits to improve everyday life.

Read more

Cotton farmers get organized

Cotton farmers get organized

Small farmers in Mozambique mobilize for greater control of the cotton production chain.

Read more

In Liben, herders find local solutions to local problems

In Liben, herders find local solutions to local problems

A community reaches out to Oxfam in the spirit of partnership.

Read more

Yum! Brands agree to hike pay for Florida tomato pickers

Yum! Brands agree to hike pay for Florida tomato pickers

Florida tomato pickers, among some of the poorest paid workers in the United States, have won another victory in their fight to earn a decent living wage.

Read more

Ethiopians, North American roasters move forward with trademark initiative

Ethiopians, North American roasters move forward with trademark initiative

In second meeting in three months, two sides discuss how to implement Ethiopia's control of its coffee brands.

Read more

Fixing up the land, little by little

Fixing up the land, little by little

Farmer Lucas Izapo says it could take three or four more years to recover his land. Part III of III

Read more

Coffee cooperatives still rebuilding after Stan

Coffee cooperatives still rebuilding after Stan

How Guatamalan coffee cooperatives are recovering from heavy rains. Part I of III

Read more

"We emerged from the crisis, and then came Stan"

"We emerged from the crisis, and then came Stan"

Just as coffee growers started to emerge from the coffee-price crisis, rains from hurricane Stan hit. Part two of a three-part series.

Read more

US farmworkers reach historic agreement with McDonald's

US farmworkers reach historic agreement with McDonald's

Some tomato pickers in southwestern Florida could see their wages nearly double now that McDonald's has agreed to pay them a penny a pound more for the produce they gather.

Read more

The Andean challenge: getting there and catching your breath

The Andean challenge: getting there and catching your breath

At 16,000 feet above sea level, the air is thin in the mountain hamlets of Peru. Oxfam America and its partner, Asociación Proyección, are reaching out to herders in the region who have confronted severe hardships in the face of changing weather patterns.

Read more

Seed program and family gardens help farmers in Zimbabwe

Seed program and family gardens help farmers in Zimbabwe

Erratic rains and a tough economy challenge farmers, but seeds to plant and extra vegetables over the winter help them survive.

Read more

Ethiopian farmers meet with importers and roasters

Ethiopian farmers meet with importers and roasters

In Addis Ababa, both sides discuss how Ethiopian farmers can gain more control over their coffee names, and get a bigger share of the profits.

Read more

Ethiopian coffee farmers show commitment to trademark initiative

Ethiopian coffee farmers show commitment to trademark initiative

Hundreds turn out and ask Starbucks to respect their rights.

Read more

New fair trade company takes on the top bananas with Oxfam's support

New fair trade company takes on the top bananas with Oxfam's support

Tropical fruit importer has a simple mission: improve the lives of poor banana farmers and workers.

Read more

"The" Trade Debate

"The" Trade Debate

DR-CAFTA became a symbolic debate about free trade in the Americas—and the world.

Read more

Resistance in Central America

Resistance in Central America

Central Americans worked hard to change the content of DR-CAFTA, as well as the way it was being negotiated.

Read more

Interview: Victor Campos

Interview: Victor Campos

Victor Campos, 46, a civil engineer specializing in environmental issues, works for Centro Alexandro Von Humboldt, an Oxfam partner from Nicaragua.

Read more

A popular campaign

A popular campaign

US-based activists played a significant role in forcing Congress to examine the merits of DR-CAFTA.

Read more

A race against time in Mudzi

A race against time in Mudzi

In the arid northeast corner of Zimbabwe, Oxfam America comes through for farmers in crisis.

Read more

A good daughter

A good daughter

Single mother, Minor Chisero, describes how her family is juggling their food needs, school fees, and health care expenses, while caring for her chronically ill mother.

Read more

Coffee farmers demand role in international organization

Coffee farmers demand role in international organization

Small growers seek help from ICO to resolve economic problems of rising debt and lower prices for their product.

Read more

Coffee farmers' determination inspires action

Coffee farmers' determination inspires action

Despite challenges, coffee campaign manager finds reasons for hope.

Read more

Losing the family farm

Losing the family farm

During US tour, Thai farmers warn Americans what's at stake if the US-Thai Free Trade Agreement is approved.

Read more

Farmers in the US speak out

Farmers in the US speak out

Farmers in the US and Central America had similar concerns about DR-CAFTA.

Read more

» More stories «
Document Actions