June 2021 | Volume 37 | Issue 2 | Page 436 Sarhad Journal of Agriculture Research Article Introduction F amily farming is exposed to terrible political, so- cial, economic and ecological changes. To make sure the progress at the intra-family level and long term survival of their farms; farm families need to adopt innovative, sustainable and market driven strat- egies (Suess-Reyes and Fuetsch, 2016). Agriculture in the developing world has a low productivity rate relative to the rest of the economic domains (Gollin, Abstract | Family farming is basically a system to establish a set up for forestry, agricultural, fsheries, countryside and aquaculture production. Trough family farming employment generation takes place and unemployment issue prevailing in the society minimizes. Te output of the family farm is high productivity and enhancement in farm income. Directly or indirectly, family farming leads to the food security situation and uplifts people’s living quality. All the rural farm families residing in district Mansehra served as the population for the study. In order to have a representation of the entire population, female respondents from the study area were drawn randomly. A total sample size of the study was 110 respondents (rural female engaged in diferent farming activities). Data were collected through pre-tested interview schedule and analyzed using SPSS. Results showed that an overwhelming majority of respondents (89.1%) were perceived that family farming played a signifcant role in improving their livelihoods on a sustainable basis. A large majority (84.6%) of respondents reported the positive role of family farming in rural livelihood development. Among diferent potential benefts of family farming “minimize household food insecurity” was perceived as the highest with the utmost mean (4.71/5.00). Rural female in the research area faced a number of constraints inefcient adoption of family farming practices. Out of these constraints “non-availability of female rural development practitioners/workers” was on the top with maximum mean value (4.66/5.00). Te study recommended that there is a need to educate female farmers involved in family farming through extension activities to perform their activities efectively and efciently. Te major purpose of present study was to explore the constraints and potential benefts associated with family farming for livelihood improvement in the highlands of Pakistan. Raheel Saqib 1 *, Muhammad Luqman 2 , Saleem Ashraf 3 , Tahir Munir Butt 4 , Abdur Rehman 5 , Imtiaz Hussain 6 and Muhammad Umer Mehmood 2 1 Department of Agricultural Extension Education and Communication, Te University of Agriculture Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan; 2 Department of Agricultural Extension, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Pakistan; 3 In-service Agricultural Training Institute, Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan; 4 Department of Agricultural Extension, UAF Sub Campus Depalpur, Okara, Pakistan; 5 Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, Gomal University D.I. Khan, Pakistan; 6 Department of Animal Sciences, College of Agriculture, University of Sargodha, Pakistan. Received | November 09, 2020; Accepted | February 14, 2021; Published | April 09, 2021 *Correspondence | Raheel Saqib, Department of Agricultural Extension Education and Communication, Te University of Agriculture Peshawar, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan; Email: raheel_24pk@yahoo.com Citation | Saqib, R., M. Luqman, S. Ashraf, T.M. Butt, A. Rehman, I. Hussain and M.U. Mehmood. 2021. Exploring the constraints and potential benefts associated with family farming for livelihood improvement in highlands of Pakistan. Sarhad Journal of Agriculture, 37(2): 436-443. DOI | https://dx.doi.org/10.17582/journal.sja/2021/37.2.436.443 Keywords | Family farming, Food security, Household, Livelihood improvement, Gender Exploring the Constraints and Potential Benefits Associated with Family Farming for Livelihood Improvement in Highlands of Pakistan