Millions of the world's smallholder farmers live in desperate poverty. For decades the development sector has spent hundreds of billions of dollars annually to address the crisis, yet extreme poverty remains endemic. In Breaking the Global Povery Trap, Pierre Ferrari diagnoses the flaws in the conventional development approach and shares his successful "pro-poor, wealth-creating, value chain" strategy that emphasizes: building social capital and technical capacity, organizing for collective action, investing in infrastructure, increasing farmers' participation in more profitable links in the value chain.

Through inspiring case studies from Africa, Asia and Latin America, Breaking the Global Poverty Trap demonstrates how this strategy works in practice and how development professionals can serve a vital role in helping communities lift themselves out of poverty.