Despite the importance of smallholder agriculture in East Africa, the strategic, conceptual and empirical analysis in the context of the crisis, which would guide policymakers and development practitioners in their efforts to revitalise agriculture in the aftermath of the crisis, is sparse. Moreover, recent studies tend to examine specific constraints to smallholders’ activities In contrast; this paper investigates the overall trends, challenges and strategic opportunities for smallholder agriculture. The study aims at helping this important segment of the population to benefit from opportunities emerging from East Africa’s economic growth and increasing regional integration. The analysis has also examined how the recent escalation of food prices and related opportunities can be seized to fully engage East Africa’s agricultural potential. The study combined review of the existing literature and country case studies on these four East African countries. The countries studied were selected based on the size of their economies, the high proportion of smallholder farmers (over 75 percent) and relatively high contribution of agriculture to the GDP.