My entire 50+ year professional career, starting with my dissertation field work in Viet Nam in 1971, has been devoted to assisting smallholder farmers and their communities. This includes residential assignments in eight countries plus additional short-term assignments in 16 countries (Table 1). Most of this was through USAID contracts, including some 15 volunteer assignments with the Farmer-to-Farmers program. Over the course of my career, I am satisfied with the effort I have made but not with the overall impact on enhancing smallholder farmer production and economic wellbeing As such I have become concerned about how effective the smallholder farmers poverty alleviation efforts have been. It seems we have invested substantial fund, over several decades with little acceptance of technical agronomic recommendations or enduring impact in economic wellbeing. Thus, I wonder if we have overlooked some important concerns or overemphasized some approaches. This presentation reviews of my thoughts on the history of the poverty alleviation for smallholder farmers synthesized over the various countries I have visited and worked in, and ideas on how future poverty alleviations efforts could be more effective.