Measure, understand and close living income gaps

Smallholder farmers around the world are earning below what they need for a decent life. Closing that gap starts with understanding it - where the income shortfalls are, what drives them, and what it would take to change them.

Akvo helps organisations measure living income gaps, identify their root causes, and design data-driven strategies to close them. From baseline studies and income analysis to decision-support tools and intervention design - we work across supply chains, crops, and geographies to turn income data into evidence that moves the needle.

 Our expertise

Data

We have collected data from over 15,000 farmers across Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Our methodology is built for comparability across crops, contexts, and geographies, so the data holds up whether you’re working with coffee farmers in Ethiopia or palm oil smallholders in Indonesia.

Context

We have a global team with local presence, ensuring we can provide local insights and adapt our tools to different contexts. Our network includes commodity experts who supplement what we don’t have in-house.

Sector contribution

As an active member of the Living Income Community of Practice, we contribute to the ongoing development of Living Income methodologies, guidance, webinars, and capacity-building initiatives – helping shape best practices across the sector.

What we offer

Indicator frameworks and theories of change that integrate Living Income into project design, monitoring, and evaluation.

Income gap analysis reports that identify key drivers and opportunities for intervention.

Interactive slide decks that communicate key insights in an engaging and accessible format.

Factsheets and infographics that make results easy to share with farmers, partners, funders, and other stakeholders.

Decision-support tools to explore intervention scenarios and prioritise investments.

Interactive dashboards that enable ongoing monitoring of indicators and progress over time.

Integrated information systems that bring together data from multiple sources into a single, coherent platform for analysis and reporting.

Akvo’s proven approach

Farmer income data analysis

Understand

We start by getting to know the income challenges you’re addressing, the context of your value chain, and the data and technology landscape around it. Before designing anything, we work to understand what Living Income looks like in your specific context and what decisions the data needs to support.

What is the goal behind gathering Living Income data? What existing income-related data is already accessible? What are the gaps?

Co-create

Once we understand the landscape, we design the approach together – a Living Income data strategy, harmonised indicators, collection instruments, governance frameworks, and early prototypes of the tools your team will use.

What decisions will you make based on the data? How do we translate living income into measurable indicators? What does success look like, and how is it defined in a way stakeholders will actually use?

Farmer income data analysis

Implement

We collect data at scale, reuse data you already have, run the analysis, and turn findings into outputs partners can act on: cost-yield efficiency analysis, farmer segmentation, dashboard creation, scenario modelling, and pricing strategy design. Every output is designed to support a specific decision.

What are the key drivers of the income gap? Which farmer segments need different interventions? Where are the biggest opportunities to close the gap?

Support and scale

After delivery, we stay involved – helping you scale what’s working, share insights with stakeholders, and embed Living Income measurement into your ongoing operations so it lasts beyond the project.

How do we track progress over time? How do we build your team’s capacity to own this? How do we make sure the data keeps being used?

Farmer income data analysis

Farmer Income Data Toolkit resources

Developed in collaboration with Fairfood, the Farmer Income Data Toolkit is an open-source methodology to help organisations assess farmer incomes, identify living income gaps, and inform effective interventions. 

Webinar: Introducing the Farmer Income Data Toolkit

A practical webinar on using data to power fairer, more sustainable supply chains

Webinar: Building a Living Income vision: Learn from early adopters

Una sesión práctica sobre el uso de datos de ingresos dignos para impulsar el cambio

Ebook: How to measure the income of smallholder farmers

A step-by-step guide for development professionals