This brief elaborates on synergies between social protection and rural development programmes, with a specific emphasis on how they contribute to agrifood system outcomes. The need for stronger coherence arises from the variety of constraints faced by smallholder farmers with limited incomes. Women, in particular, experience structural discrimination and disadvantages. They often have less access to productive resources, decent employment opportunities, education, health, and social services. These constraints cannot be addressed by rural development or social protection interventions alone. This calls for an integrated approach which combines policy interventions in an intentional manner to assist smallholders in managing risks, diversifying livelihoods, and achieving a sustainable income stream. Drawing on the experiences and learnings from two of India’s flagship rural development programmes namely, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and the National Rural Livelihood Mission, we highlight three approaches for effectively building synergies to address food security and nutrition challenges.