It has never been easier to eat. Well, on paper, that is.

For most of human history, producing enough food to feed a growing population was one of humanity’s greatest challenges — until the early 20th century. Industrialization, along with advancements in technology, science, and global policy, rapidly scaled food production, eradicating an age-old problem and flipping it on its head.

Today, we produce more food than we can eat. So, shouldn’t the global hunger crisis be solved? 

If only it were that simple.

It’s true that we produce a surplus of food, but the issue today isn’t a matter of quantity, but rather where the food goes and whether it’s of any nutritious value. Progress towards ending global hunger has stalled because of market access and distribution, particularly for smallholder farmers. 

By “market access,” we mean farmers’ ability to reach reliable, fair spaces to sell their produce to the local public; equally, this means they have fair access to the inputs, tools, and information required to keep their work up.

You might have heard it before, but smallholder farmers — the men and women who often work on less than two hectares of land — are the backbone of global food security. With adequate resources, they could go a long way in stabilizing global food systems and reducing hunger. Yet, despite the fact that a third of the world’s food is produced by smallholder farmers, many remain trapped at the margins of the very markets they sustain.

We’re currently in a lose-lose situation. On the one hand, hunger rates increase because local farmers cannot sell their produce. On the other hand, these same farmers often struggle to feed their own families without the profits and income provided from proper market access. 

The answer lies in market-readiness and access to markets, yet substantial hurdles remain. 

Market Access Challenges

The challenge smallholder farmers face isn’t just growing food, it’s getting it to the people who need it at a fair price.

Many smallholder farmers are in remote or rural regions where limited transport and storage infrastructure pose significant challenges preserving and distributing food. With most markets concentrated in city centers, expensive cold-chain storage is necessary, otherwise much of the food spoils before it reaches the market. Low-quality road infrastructure to and from these smallholdings compounds the issue, resulting in physical inaccessibility. 

Even when farmers manage to reach buyers, financial barriers can shut out opportunity. With no collateral or formal credit history, most can’t access affordable loans to buy quality seeds, fertilizers, or irrigation equipment. That limits their productivity and keeps them dependent on informal lenders or middlemen who take a cut of every transaction.

Systemic issues are at the root of these individual issues. Agricultural policies frequently favor large-scale producers, leaving smallholders to fall through the cracks without the institutional support or technical assistance needed to meet modern market standards. 

Add in  threats from climate change and these already disadvantaged farmers face an uphill battle just to stay in business.

What Does Improving Market Access Look Like? 

Market access has long favored commercial farmers with more finances, networks, and resources, leaving small-scale farmers out of luck. To change this, innovative solutions and holistic investments are key. Thankfully, across the globe, we are seeing promising new interventions emerging in the agricultural sector. 

In South Africa, a digital marketplace supported by the Kgodiso Development Fund (KDF), tackles market and distribution issues head-on. KDF is an independent fund, founded by PepsiCo Inc., which aims to support smallholder agricultural enterprises and farmers across the country’s supply chain. Khula! is one of the apps it funds that  connects farmers directly with buyers, allowing them to purchase quality agricultural inputs such as seeds, and facilitating logistical support to move their produce to market. By cutting out intermediaries and breaking down traditional market bottlenecks, the platform is proving  how technology can help aggregate demand and reduce  post-harvest losses.

In Kenya, startups like Solar Freeze help reduce food waste through innovative cold-chain storage. The award-winning initiative provides farmers with mobile, solar-powered cold rooms, allowing them to store produce as it awaits transit to market. The enterprise also provides refrigerated transportation and assists with distribution, providing comprehensive post-harvest support from farm-to-table. 

But access to market is only half the equation; it’s also important for smallholder farms to be market-ready, meaning they’re equipped with the resources, knowledge, and infrastructure needed to meet buyers’ demand. That means policymakers need to step up with holistic investment, including funds, training, markets, and technical know-how so they can compete on equal footing with commercial producers.

Let’s consider South African potato farmer Zelda Masoga. When she expanded her farm to a larger plot of communal land, she quickly faced new challenges — limited technical know-how to inadequate  basic infrastructure, resources that commercial farmers often take for granted. But a holistic investment in her venture helped turn those setbacks into opportunities. With support for training, inputs, and financial management, Masoga and her team were able to  access formal, and formally out-of-reach, markets, including selling her potatoes straight to Pepsico, building a more sustainable, scalable business. 

A World Without Hunger

We know that when smallholder farmers have the right tools, knowledge, and networks, and when investors back small-scale farms with the innovative interventions that sustain their  productivity, we get a whole lot closer to a world without hunger. 

Yes, it has never been easier to eat. 

Humanity has mastered the science of growing food. What remains is nailing the fairness of sharing it through accessible markets. Hunger today isn’t about scarcity, it’s about systems. Systems that dictate who gets to sell, who gets to buy, and who gets left behind. 

These systems must make space for smallholder farmers to supply affordable, nutrient-rich foods for those who need them most — while also sustaining their own  livelihoods.  

Achieving  these solutions means committing to smallholder farmers not as beneficiaries, but as essential partners in the global food economy.