What Oxfam is Doing
Working With Local Farming Communities
Even as Oxfam works with local farming communities to help them achieve a more stable and sustainable existence, we campaign for changes in global trade policies that have institutionalized rural poverty. On the ground, Oxfam helps small farmers:
- Access new markets, such as fair trade and organic, that pay higher prices for their goods;
- Understand and respond to marketplace demands, so they can compete in mainstream markets;
- Develop sustainable methods, such as the rice intensification system in East Asia, that require fewer inputs and produce healthier yields;
- Diversify their farms so they can eat healthier, and protect themselves should one crop fail or lose value on the world market;
- Organize into cooperatives and other associations that strengthen their abilities to compete, to represent their own interests, and to risk testing new markets and methods.
Campaigns
2007 Farm Bill Campaign
Learn more about what Oxfam is doing to help small farmers in the US and elsewhere compete in the global agricultural marketplace by advocating for reform of the United States Farm Bill.