This article analyses the Indo-United States Knowledge Initiative on Agriculture's proposed changes in the regulation of genetically modified organisms, contract farming, and intellectual property rights in agriculture.

Contract farmers in central Honduras have been producers of Asian vegetables for American markets since 1989. Contract farming holds the potential to provide benefits to small farmers who would otherwise be unable to access export markets but production relations between firms and farmers are often asymmetric and can be exploitative. [...]

This article discusses horticultural development. A total of 54 conference papers on growth pattern, crop diversification, government initiatives, performance of different regions in horticultural crop production, profitability, marketing channels and price spread, post-harvest loss assessment, contract farming, agro processing and value addition, market linkages, price analysis, export performance, income and [...]

There have been many reviews and evaluations of contract farming and its usefulness for the small farmer in Africa. Some see contractual arrangements as disadvantageous to farmers, while others see them as beneficial. Despite these debates, contract farming is likely to continue as a means of keeping small farmers involved [...]

This article traces the development of the oil palm industry in Ghana and its contribution to agricultural development Drawing on the example of the Ghana Oil Palm Development Corporation (GOPDC) and its outgrower scheme, it argues that the shift from state-sponsored to market-led development has had important ramifications.for agricultural development. [...]

This paper empirically examines the determinants of the allocation of decision rights in the context of fruit and vegetable contracting. A multiple case study is used to investigate twelve fruit and vegetable contracts in order to test five hypotheses regarding the decision rights allocated to the farmer growers and to [...]

This Occasional Paper examines experiences of linking farmers to markets, in order to reach some tentative conclusions regarding success factors. It considers examples of linkages promoted both by linking organizations and by the private sector without external support and then reviews in detail the linkage activities of the former. Emphasis is placed on markets [...]

During the past five years there has been a rapid rise in contract farming in Lao PDR. This report takes a look at what is actually happening in different parts of the country, and poses questions about what can be done to improve the benefits of this type of farming.

Contracts are an increasingly common method for coordinating exchange in the food industry. Contracts often include specifications for product attributes including food safety. One of the goals of explicit safety specifications is to discourage or deter suppliers who would deliver unsafe food. In this article, we use a principal-agent model [...]

This paper analyses alternative forms of contract farming, including the possibility for cooperation among small agricultural businesses, and their application in Bulgaria.