Improving Access to Climate Adaptation Support for Pacific Smallholder Farmers in Tonga and Fiji

Smallholder farmers are the foundation of food production across the Pacific, yet they remain among the most vulnerable to the accelerating impacts of climate change (Taylor & Stice, 2024). Rising sea levels, shifting rainfall patterns, and more frequent extreme weather events threaten agricultural livelihoods and food security (Taylor, 2016). Despite their importance, smallholder farmers face barriers in accessing financial, technical, and institutional support to increase their adaptive capacity. Recent global evidence highlights the scale of this challenge. New analysis by Climate Focus for Family Farmers for Climate Action (FFCA) estimates that small-scale farmers require US$443 billion per year in adaptation finance, yet only 0.36% of this need is currently being met. In the Pacific, farmers receive just US$0 to 0.01 billion annually, despite an estimated minimum need of US$80 million, a stark illustration of the region’s widening adaptation financing gap. This significant underfunding leaves farmers increasingly exposed to climate shocks (2025).This white paper, developed in partnership with Pacific Farmer Organizations (PFO), examines how smallholder farmers are currently being supported in adapting to climate change in Fiji and Tonga, the role of Farmers’ Organizations (FOs) in enhancing farmers’ adaptive capacity, the systemic barriers that limit farmers’ access to support, and the factors that enable or constrain political support of smallholder farmers’ needs. Building on these observations, the following section summarizes the key findings that consistently emerged across semi-structured interviews, focus group discussions (FGDs), surveys, and field observations with a sample of primarily FO-affiliated farmers and key stakeholders. The data provides rich insights into how current systems are functioning on the ground.Core Findings From the ResearchAnalysis across interviews, FGDs, and surveys reveals five central findings: Climate change, market volatility, and lack of infrastructure are the most frequently cited challenges affecting farmers in Fiji and Tonga.FOs are the primary support channel and deliver the highest satisfaction among all service providers for sampled farmers.FOs play a critical role in knowledge sharing, resilience building, and establishing strategic partnerships, though their full impact is constrained by inconsistent funding and limited policy influence.Capacity gaps and limited awareness hinder access to support.Despite strong regional political recognition of climate vulnerability, national-level implementation gaps and structural barriers prevent effective support from reaching smallholder farmers.While the research findings reflect varied local contexts, smallholder farmers’ perspectives were remarkably consistent. Three challenges emerged most frequently: climate change, market volatility, and lack of infrastructure. Farmers in FGDs overwhelmingly identified climate change as their primary challenge, citing droughts, floods, cyclones, unseasonal temperature changes, and unpredictable heavy rains that damage crops, infrastructure, and farm structures. Survey results reinforce this pattern: 73–85% of crop, floriculture, and livestock surveyed farmers strongly agreed that climate change affects their farming. Although farmers are already implementing local adaptation strategies, limited finance and increasingly erratic weather events constrain these efforts.Market volatility and access challenges were the second major concern. Farmers reported sudden price drops at harvest, limited local market spaces, high transport costs, and export barriers undermine profitability and production planning. Many farmers expressed that they “do not know where to go” or “where to raise [their] voice” on price-setting and market regulation, pointing to weak institutional mechanisms for addressing market risks. The third key challenge relates to infrastructure deficits: absent or poorly maintained roads increase transport costs and limit market access, while inadequate water storage and irrigation systems leave farmers highly dependent on rainfall. Some farmers reported requesting farm roads for over a decade without response, underscoring the long-standing nature of these constraints. Within this context, FOs emerged as the primary and most trusted support channel for sampled farmers. Survey data from Fiji (n=33) and Tonga (n=100) show that 69% of farmers turn to FOs for advice and services to improve their farming, compared to 24% who turn to Government sources. Farmers also lean heavily on family and fellow farmers, with 43% turning to them for support, while local organizations were rarely approached (4%). In FGDs, FO-affiliated farmers reported receiving more services and resources from FOs than from any other actor, particularly around training, agricultural inputs, and equipment. Among those receiving FO support, 74% rated it “very useful,” compared to 40% for Government support. Farmers consistently described FOs as accessible, reliable, and responsive organizations that visit communities frequently and engage directly with farmers.These findings align with global evidence that channeling climate finance directly through grassroots organizations is among the most effective ways to support adaptation, because such organizations understand local realities and can rapidly reach communities. Farmers in our study emphasized FOs’ simplified processes and frequent direct engagement.Despite these strengths, FOs’ ability to sustain and scale this support is highly dependent on external project funding and fragmented partnerships. While training, knowledge sharing and peer learning are central to FOs work, these activities often decline sharply once project funding ends, especially for remote or outer-island communities where travel costs are high. Partnerships with Donors, Governments, and other FOs extend reach but also create administrative burdens as organizations juggle multiple small grants and reporting requirements. Although FOs are increasingly invited into policy discussions, participants consistently reported that farmer perspectives shared in these spaces rarely translate into concrete policy changes or implementation, leaving FO policy influence limited.Beyond FO-specific issues, the study identifies broader systemic capacity gaps and access barriers that hinder equitable support for smallholder farmers. Government agencies and other support institutions were widely described as underfunded, understaffed, and overburdened. In the Pacific overall, the ratio of extension officers to farmers can reach 1:10,000, and in Fiji approximately 1:1,000, making regular contact challenging (Sustainability Research Centre: Transforming Regions, n.d.; Ministry of Agriculture and Waterways, 2024). Insufficient funding and staffing constrain both service delivery and collaboration across actors; many Donors and FO representatives emphasized that “everyone is still working in silos,” despite shared recognition of the problems. On the farmer side, limited awareness, complex application procedures, and digital and financial literacy barriers significantly restrict farmers from accessing assistance. Illiterate farmers, those without digital access, and those unable to travel long distances are particularly at risk of exclusion and may simply “give up” after repeated attempts.A consistent theme across stakeholder interviews is that current systems tend to favor larger, commercial, or well-organized farmers over less resourced or more informal smallholders. Donors and Governments often prioritize organized farmer groups with stronger internal systems, both for ease of fund management and to demonstrate financial sustainability. While this approach can improve accountability, it also risks deepening inequalities: farmers without formal groups, networks, or “direct contacts” are less likely to receive support, even though they may be among the most vulnerable to climate impacts.Finally, the research finds a misalignment between strong regional political awareness of climate vulnerability and weaker national-level implementation in Fiji and Tonga. Regionally, climate impacts and the role of agriculture feature prominently in policy platforms and events such as the Pacific Week of Agriculture. Regional organizations and frameworks create space for farmer organizations to be “at the table,” and smallholder farmers are increasingly recognized in regional strategies. However, a persistent disconnect between regional priorities, national institutional capacity, and local realities prevents this political attention from consistently translating into tangible support for smallholder farmers.To address these challenges, the white paper proposes five key actions:Formalize FOs as co-delivery partners in national and regional adaptation programs.Invest in institutional and logistical capacity to strengthen service delivery.Improve coordination mechanisms among FOs, Governments, and Donors.Tailor the services provided according to farmers needs.Increase farmer representation and advocacy in policy processes.Together, these recommendations aim to strengthen Farmer Organizations as effective, trusted partners in delivering community-driven climate adaptation support for smallholder farmers, while addressing the structural financing and capacity gaps that currently prevent Pacific farmers from realizing their full role in a resilient, food-secure future.