The paper reviews the role of forage crops in improving the productivity of smallholder farming systems and breaking the cycle of poverty and resource degradation. It reviews the contributions of forage crops to increasing farm incomes, intensifying farm production, and contributing to better human nutrition. Several case studies are presented, including mucuna in Central America and West Africa, the forage peanut in Colombia, a forage legume in China, forage crops in Costa Rica and the production of forage crop seed in Bolivia. The paper also describes a strategy for farmer participatory research for identifying suitable forage crops in Southeast Asia.