This document summarizes the fifteen projects that were selected by a panel of international experts as those which best represent the technological, institutional and organizational innovations carried out with and by small farmers – known as family farming - in LAC. This is the result of a hemisphere-wide competition organized in 2012 by FONTAGRO, with the aim of (1) showcasing success stories in which innovations having positive economic, social, and environmental impacts have been implemented and, (2) raising awareness regarding the importance of investing in innovation.

Brazilian agriculture is facing another expansion cycle to the Cerrado region, more specific in the Northeast. The first agriculture expansion cycle to the Midwest was in seventies encouraged and developed by Brazilian Government with farmers from southern and southeast Brazil, which were traditional small farmers with some experience, low budget and a remarkable determination. All of these efforts after 20 years resulted in an outstanding development of a part of the country with economy based on agribusiness (soybean, corn, cotton, livestock, poultry, swine, etc.).

Providing food and other products to a growing human population while safeguarding natural ecosystems and the provision of their services is a significant scientific, social and political challenge. With food demand likely to double over the next four decades, anthropization is already driving climate change and is the principal force behind species extinction, among other environmental impacts. The sustainable intensification of production on current agricultural lands has been suggested as a key solution to the competition for land between agriculture and natural ecosystems.

Traditional shifting cultivation in the Amazon region has caused negative environmental and social effects due to the use of fire. This type of agriculture has been criticized because it results in emission of large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and a loss of soil productive potential.

Small-scale farmers in the Brazilian Amazon collectively hold tenure over more than 12 million ha of permanent forest reserves, as required by the Forest Code. The trade-off between forest conservation and other land uses entails opportunity costs for them and for the country, which have not been sufficiently studied. We assessed the potential income generated by multiple use forest management for farmers and compared it to the income potentially derived from six other agricultural land uses.