Community-driven development programmes are an increasingly common component of poverty reduction strategies. Most have been on a small-scale so far, but efforts are being made to scale successful experiences up to the country level. This article quantifies the impact of the community-driven 'farming system development' (FSD) adopted by the Philippine government in selected rice-producing agrarian communities and simulates the potential effects of scaling FSD up to the country level using a general equilibrium framework. Results show that the FSD approach could be an effective poverty reduction strategy, instigating poor farmers to diversify towards nontraditional crops and the rice processing industry to benefit from lower prices; however, existing rice import quotas severely constraint the size of such potential benefits.