Contract farming

Michael J. Watts, "Life Under Contract Contract Farming, Agrarian Restructuring, and Flexible Accumulation, in Michael J. Watts and Peter O. Little, eds.. Living Under Contract Contract Farming and Agrarian Transformation in Sub-... 

Ni, H., Hisano, S., 2013. Development of contract farming in Chinese sericulture and the silk industry. In The Political Economy of Agro-food Markets in China, pp. 236—256. 

There are only a few studies that apply behavioural approaches, thus addressing farmers attitudes towards contracting (Guo et al, 2005) or contract attributes (Lajili et al, 1997 Roe etal, 2004). They work with stated preferences, typically in simulated experiments or surveys. Guo etal. (2005 12-13) find evidence that Chinese farmers have a rather positive attitude towards contracts, as 21.2% out of 1,036 surveyed farmers already had contracts and another 76 % said that they would accept contracts if they were offered. According to these results, low participation in contract farming is mostly due to a lack of opportunity (52.2 %), interest of buyers (24.5 %) or obvious benefits (20.7 %). 

The mainstream conclusion in agricultural economics is that contracts are a highly preferable option for farmers to reduce (price) risks and to safeguard specific investments. The main problem of farmers is not to be excluded from contractual relationships. From this viewpoint, the relevant question is whether contract farming bypasses small scale producers especially in... 

Guo, H., R.W. Jolly and J. Zhu, 2005. Contract farming in China Supply chain or ball and chain Proceedings of the Minnesota International Economic Development Conference, University of Minnesota, April 29-30,2005. 

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