Many researchers, policy makers and food activists view Short Food Supply Chains (SFSC) as levers for improving farm income and the sustainability of farming systems. We conduct a systematic review of the motivations and factors favoring and barriers constraining farmer participation in SFSC as well as the impact on their income. We examined articles published in English and French from January 2000 to September 2021. The analysis includes a total of 146 papers among 2226 scientific articles returned by the literature search from Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases. The largest number of publications on these topics have been conducted on the United States (US) and have dramatically increased since 2014. The findings indicate that both economic and non-economic motivations encourage farmers to produce for SFSC with mixed evidence on which is the primary motivation. A set of characteristics of the farmers, farms and the area where the farms are located drive SFSC involvement. However, many constraints hinder the development of SFSC. In addition, even though the majority of studies report that SFSC participation has a positive impact on farmer income, some studies find the opposite result. Based on our results, research gaps are identified and policy suggestions drawn.