Rural 21 is an international journal dedicated to topics surrounding rural development, and having the ambition is to further strategies and policies that strengthen rural areas for developing and newly industrialising countries and encourage their implementation. Relevant themes in this journal include agriculture and fisheries via capacity building and education [...]

In developing countries contract farming faces numerous challenges that many times lead to its failure. Innovations that help overcome the difficulties of contracting with a large pool of small farmers in such settings can enhance the viability of such schemes. We use a randomized control trial design combined with high [...]

The workshop brought together 25 representatives of producer organizations from Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. Participants highlighted the need for capacity development at country level on contract formation and negotiation  to identify gaps in existing contracts and improve negotiation of future contracts with buyers. FAO and IISD will [...]

 Governments, donors and responsible agricultural investors are increasingly looking to contract farming as a more inclusive business model for agricultural investment, and a tool with which to redress economic power imbalances in relationships between small-scale producers and agribusiness. The International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) notes that [...]

Agriculture and rural development are key to the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as the majority of the world's poor and food insecure live in rural areas of developing countries. Unfortunately, the agricultural sector currently suffers from serious underinvestment, thus threatening the achievement of set development goals by [...]

A simple and pratical legal tool to support the implementation of global principles and guidelines that make responsible investment a reality. It is designed in such a way that addresses some of the inequalities in contract farming that disadvantage producers; to help create more equitable and sustainable business relationships as [...]

Le présent étude analyse  la mise en place de systèmes d’agriculture sous-contrat (ASC) dans la filière thé.

L’objectif est d’évaluer la capacité de l’ASC à lever une partie des contraintes qui continuent de peser sur la filière. Les résultats de l’étude permettent d’orienter la stratégie [...]

This report presents the lessons learned from a project in four East African countries – Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda – focusing on youth and their agribusinesses. In Burundi and Rwanda, poultry and eggs were sold to retailers but were also provided to schools to alleviate malnutrition. In Kenya [...]

On 22nd May 2018 the Government of Thailand released a new law to support contract farming in the country. The "Contract Farming Promotion and Development Act" will come into force in September 2018 and provide specific rules on the formulation of contracts as well dispute resolution and mediation mechanisms. The [...]