Organization Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Uludag, Turkey

Year 2007

This book presents brief information and a short insight into related theories and implementations of contract farming to promote understanding of different aspects, implications, mechanisms, outcomes, related problems and their solutions. Apart from providing a brief history of contract farming and discussing the alternatives to contract farming, the book mainly focuses on the basic concept and theories of vertical coordination. It also reviews the world-wide implementation of contract farming besides the rather detailed information about contract farming both in Turkey and the USA. The structure of food industry and experiences of contract farming in the USA were investigated based on the available publications and empirical researches, while these issues in Turkey were studied based on combination of desk reviews and field work. This book also deals with the main shortcomings of contract farming focusing on the bargaining problem and related solutions, and presents a cooperative model for a successful contracting.