The Smallholder Farmers’ Dataportrait of the ESA Small Family Farms Team is a comprehensive, systematic and standardized data set on the profile of smallholder farmers, bringing out the characteristics of family farms across the world. It is designed in such a way that differences between countries and regions can be revealed easily. This not only provides valuable insights about the strengths and weaknesses of smallholder agriculture worldwide but also supports the formulation of policy options with useful information.

The updated Dataportrait takes stock of two new indicators in order to enhance knowledge on the extent of commercialization of smallholders across the world: The Market- and the Livestock Section.

In particular, information about market access is distinguished between the markets' geographical location and the type of contract (formal / informal) smallholders have. In doing so, one can see i.e. whether smallholders sell/buy their produce/inputs on legally recognized markets, through informal channels such as friends or neighbors or if the market is located nearby or outside their village - giving also an indication about the infrastructural situation in the respective country.

The new livestock section, instead, gives an overview on the importance of livestock for small family farms across the world. This being said, the Dataportrait not only represents the total number of such livestock, but reports the number of seven different kind of animals owned by each household, expressed in Tropical Livestock Units (TLU).

The updated Smallholder Farmer's Dataportrait has a geographical coverage of, yet, 19 countries but is subject to regular updates and enlargement as the Dataportrait acts as a dynamic and active hub.