This guide has been developed to serve practitioners
involved in starting up and managing or
supporting the initiation and implementation of
contract farming schemes:
companies (buyers) interested to develop networks
of small-scale farmers as competent and
reliable preferred suppliers;
farmers’ organisations (farmer groups, associations,
cooperatives) interested to service
members (e.g. joint learning and possibly joint
contract negotiation, input distribution, collection,
marketing);
sector organisations like national inter-professional
bodies or regional federations interested
to develop trade and exchange platforms or
codes of conduct for contract farming; and
third parties (governmental, non-governmental
and development organisations or consultants)
interested to promote CF as innovative business
arrangement in a broader development context. The handbook provides:
the conceptual foundations of contract farming
and its facilitation as basis for understanding
the proposed phases and steps for contract
farming development;a process-structure for CF development with
three phases (initiate & plan, implement &
learn, sustain & grow) and eight steps;
a systematic description of the three phases
and respective steps in a clearly structured and
easy-to-capture format;
speci4c guidance on selected key features of
contract farming (e.g. contract terms, pricing
mechanisms, causes of con_ict and con_ict
resolution); and
for each phase and step, references for literature
on the subject. This publication is downloadable from GIZ publication database.
