[3] PIFON was established to provide support to the small national farmer organisations in the region through coordinating capacity building, sharing success stories, and supporting regional exchanges of expertise, thus potentially enabling smallholder farmers to play an important role in agricultural value chains.
It was therefore considered important to develop business activities to promote farmer organisation sustainability, while not detracting from their core values and objectives.
[2] PIFON carries out three broad types of activities: to enhance sustainability of national members; to provide practical information to enable farmers to carry out income-generating activities; and to support members in promoting sustainable production practices.
[3] Within the Pacific region it has identified opportunities for farmers to supply growing urban and tourism markets, expand tree crop exports, and exploit niche product exports based on fairtrade and organic certification.
[4] Since its establishment PIFON has received support from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the European Commission and Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA).