The marriage of contract farming and farmer cooperation has the potential for increasing access to new market opportunities and services required to support smallholder intensification. Cooperation often works best where farmer groups are contractually linked to input and output markets. However, there are some constraints to the development of contract farming schemes, not least the risk that farmers will default, and the high costs of supervision. This paper explores ways of improving the performance of cooperation and contract farming, as well as the scope for linkages between them. It also discusses initiatives supporting the further development of the contract farming and cooperation approaches, and other means of providing improved services.
