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Smallholder agriculture refers to agricultural production systems operated by households or individuals who manage relatively small areas of land, rely substantially on family labor, and make production decisions based on household resources, local conditions, and available inputs. These systems are characterized by limited access to land, capital, technology, markets, and institutional support compared with larger-scale commercial farming operations, although their production structures and resource constraints vary across regions and farming contexts ^[1]. Smallholder agriculture encompasses diverse crop, livestock, and mixed farming practices, including subsistence-oriented and market-oriented production, where management strategies are shaped by ecological conditions, labor availability, and socioeconomic factors ^[2]. Unlike agricultural systems defined solely by farm size, smallholder agriculture is characterized by the combination of small-scale resource ownership, household-based management, and production organization within local agroecosystems ^[3]. In agronomic contexts, smallholder agriculture includes farming practices such as crop diversification, intercropping, soil management, and resource optimization that influence productivity, sustainability, and resilience of small-scale farming systems ^[4].