Abstract

This study analyses the role of Chile’s Productive Alliance Programme (PAP)in increasing welfare and improving access to the market for smallholderproducers, by developing a sustainable agriculture in both social andenvironmental terms. This programme started in  under the Ministry ofAgriculture and now serves , smallholders in Chile. It seeks to createcommercial partnerships between these smallholders and large companies,providing subsidies to establish conditions that allow the farmers to build newcapabilitiesandskills.Thiscasestudyusedqualitativemethodologyandcarriedout  semi-structured interviews over July and August . Intervieweesincluded companies and smallholder producers within different productivechains, as well as public officials. The purpose of this analysis is to discuss theopportunities family farmers have to become a fundamental link in the supplychain of competitive companies at the national and international level. Byproviding targeted training on market requirements, agricultural management,risk management and sustainable use of resources, the programme enablessmallholder producers to establish stable commercial alliances, improvingtheir productive and management capacity. Although the programme’s mainoutcome is not related to a significant increase in smallholders’ income,participants perceive more stable earnings, reduced uncertainty, and improvetheir productive skills, mainly in terms of management and sustainablefarming practices.