FAO ESA and LEGN, in close collaboration with the Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Enterprise (MoAFSE) and together with the FAO team in Belize, and supporting office in Jamaica, successfulty implemented a Technical Cooperation Project TCP/BZE/3702/C2: “Establishment of a Legislative and Regulatory Framework to Enhance the Contract Farming in the Agriculture Sector”. 

This project was developped at the request of the Government of Belize to strengthen the country’s approach in managing contractual arrangements, particularly between producers and buyers in the agricultural trade, and to promote more inclusive, equitable, and effective trade. The project was aligned with the National Agriculture and Food Policy of Belize 2015 to 2030, which is to promote linkages between producers and markets, and specifically support the linkages through the development of a purchasing policy for the purchase of domestically produced products from farmers as well as support the development and implementation of public and private purchase contracts (MoAFSE, 2015). The project provided the training on contract farming for relevant stakeholders in the public and private sectors in Belize, reviewed the current legislative, regulatory and policy frameworks, proposed a draft bill for contract farming, conducted a scoping assessment to identify the opportunities for contract farming, and finally facilitated a contract farming pilot for honey. This overall goal was to support the capacity development of relevant stakeholders in Belize to adopt and promote contract farming as an innovative business model for sustainable commercialization and development of agri-food value chains and to advocate best practices for contract farming.

The project successfully achieved to produced two envisaged outputs: 

- the draft national contract farming legislation

- and the assessment of existent contract farming practices, with relevant recommendations and strategies, and implementation of trainings for improved contract farming operations

Three relevant studies were produced: 

(1) A scoping assessment containing key preliminary findings and recommendations of contract farming potential based on factors such as market conditions, capacities, needs and challenges of stakeholders interviewed and best practices. 

(2) A study report entitled “Piloting Contract Farming for Honey in Belize—An Assessment of Contract Farming Potential for Honey and A Proposal for Piloting Contract Farming for Honey with A Model Agreement.” 

(3) A study report entitled “An Assessment of Contract Farming Potential in the Pineapple Sector.”

Sample contract developed for honey within this project is available for consultation (link). 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at [email protected].