Rising per capita income, urbanization and globalization are changing the consumption basket in the developing countries towards high-value commodities (like fruits & vegetables, milk, meat, poultry, fish, etc.). This paper explores how smallholders can benefit from the emerging opportunities from a silent demand-driven changes in high-value agriculture in India. The [...]

This article explores the motivations behind the decision of small-scale producers to grow nontraditional vegetables under contract for export. Based on a survey of small-scale producers in Zimbabwe, four factors are identified as motivating contracting, namely, market uncertainty, indirect benefits (e.g., knowledge acquisition), income benefits, and intangible benefits. Respondents are clustered [...]

Production and marketing contracts govern 36 percent of the value of U.S. agricultural production, up from 12 percent in 1969. Contracts are now the primary method of handling sales of many livestock commodities, including milk, hogs, and broilers, and of major crops such as sugar beets, fruit, and processing tomatoes. [...]

This paper is composed of the following sections: o Poverty and environmental implications of organic contract farming o Growing demand in the world market for organic products o Experience of Chinese farmers growing organic products for supermarket in Japan o Comparative advantages of the GMS for this development strategy o Potential and constraints in development of agro-processing of organic products o Steps [...]

Transformations in the food processing sectors of developing countries are increasingly seen as strategic from the point of view of export earnings, domestic industry restructuring and dietary issues. This article reviews a selection of the literature on these themes. It begins with a discussion of the main trends identifiable in [...]

In the absence of access to formal credit, informal contracts with independent investors give the small ranchers of the Lower Amazon an acceptable means through which to surmount the high investment hurdle of starting a cattle herd. These contracts - called sociedades - allow small ranchers to raise an outside [...]

Codes of conduct covering the employment conditions of Southern producers exporting to European markets mushroomed throughout the 1990s, especially in the horticulture sector linking UK and European supermarkets with export firms in Africa. The majority of employment in this sector is "informal," a significant proportion of which is female. This [...]

Globalisation in many rural parts of the developing world is leading to an increase in contract farming arrangements. Under these arrangements, landowners or tenants have contracts with agribusiness marketing and/or processing firms who specify prices, timing, quality and quantity/acreage of the produce to be delivered. Workers employed by contract producers tend to experience poor [...]

This study by ACIAR examines the experiences of agribusiness firms and smallholders in Indonesia participating in contract farming arrangements. It provides an introduction to background, theory and practice of contract farming and then presents two in-depth case studies of contract farming in Bali and Lombok. The study finds [...]