The micro finance and livelihoods institution, BASIX, became involved with financing the potato value chain in Jharkhand, India in 2005. BASIX helped negotiate contracts between PepsiCo and small-scale potato farmers to supply agreed quantities of potatoes of a specified quality and price to PepsiCo's chip-making factory in Kolkata. Although in [...]

This paper presents a review of the literature on contract farming (CF), focussing on recent empirical research on the economic impact of CF. The paper starts with an explanation of the phenomenon of CF, providing definitions, typologies, models and objectives. Using a Transaction Costs Economics framework, the paper explains for [...]

Over the last 40 years the world has witnessed a remarkable increase in the consumption of poultry, pork and beef. Multinational meat processing companies have been able to respond to the hugely expanded export trade only by tying hundreds of thousands of small farmers into production contracts. In this article [...]

A study was conducted at the University of South Africa, Department of Agriculture, Animal Health and Human Ecology Pretoria during 2006-07. The objective was to investigate factors contributing to contract farming among small-scale sunflower farmers in Bojanala district of North West province using discriminate analysis technique. The results indicate that [...]

Trade and export, it is argued, spin economic growth. This paper studies the microeconomics of exporting. We build a heuristic model of transactions between exporters and producers and relate it to East India Company (EIC) operations in colonial Bengal. Our model and the historical record stress two difficulties: the exporter [...]

This paper empirically investigates the relationship between contractual arrangements and their enforcement in Chinese agriculture. Based on an analysis of a survey of 100 agribusiness firms engaged in contract farming in Zhejiang province of China, we find that private contract enforcement mechanisms play an important role in influencing smallholders' decisions [...]

This study seeks to investigate factors affecting Good Agricultural Practice (GAP) in pineapple farming in Thailand. A logit model is applied to a sample of 350 growers. This study found that average farm price, a contract with buying companies, age, average yield, being a progressive farmer, food safety and the [...]

This study was conducted in Madukkarai and Kinathukadavu blocks of Coimbatore district for cotton crop and Attur and Gangavalli blocks in Salem district (Tamil Nadu, India) for coleus crop, with a sample of 100 contract farmers for each crop. To avail of assured price, to get quality seeds, to get [...]

Contract farming is frequently considered as an appropriate mechanism for integrating smallholders into dynamic markets. We discuss the rationale for the variety in contractual arrangements between small-scale producers and agro-processing firms in the Northern and Central region of Costa Rica. Different market configurations give rise to delivery conditions, ranging from [...]

The goals of this article are to help build a clear picture of the role of women in China’s agriculture, to assess whether or not agricultural feminization has been occurring, and if so, to measure its impact on labour use, productivity and welfare. The article uses two high quality data sets to explore who [...]