Contract Farming Resource Centre

Model Agreement for Responsible Contract Farming - with commentary

Organization FAO and International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD)
Year 2018

The Model Agreement for Responsible Contract Farming was developed by FAO and IISD, drawing from the principles of the UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD Legal Guide on Contract Farming. The Model Agreement is a simple and practical legal tool for buyers and producers to improve their business relations and help make responsible agricultural investment a reality. It can help address power asymmetries, create more equitable and sustainable business relationships, and support a transparent business environment for contract farming schemes. The Model Agreement provides simple, customisable template provisions, which can be adapted by the parties to suit the commodity, context and parties’ specific needs. The Model Agreement for Responsible Contract Farming provides an overview of some of the key legal issues in contract farming, and explains each of the provisions. The generic template is an easy to use word document which can be downloaded and customised. The tomato and coffee templates illustrate how this can be done for specific crops.