How To Make Contract Farming Arrangements Work: Evidence From A Public And A Private Cassava Outgrower Scheme In Ghana

A.-G. Poku, Regina Birner () and S. Gupta

No 277471, 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia from International Association of Agricultural Economists

Abstract: This paper uses a comparative case study approach of a public and private cassava outgrower scheme in Ghana to investigate which contract farming arrangements are equitable and sustainable for both farmers and agribusiness firms. A complementary combination of qualitative and quantitative methods is employed to assess the sustainability of these institutional arrangements. The results indicate that ad hoc or opportunistic investments that only address smallholders marketing challenges are not sufficient to ensure mutually beneficial and sustainable schemes. The results suggest that firms capacity and commitment to design contracts with embedded support services for outgrowers is essential to smallholder participation and the long term viability of these arrangements. Public-private partnerships in outgrower schemes can present a viable option that harnesses the strengths of both sectors and overcomes their institutional weaknesses. Acknowledgement : The authors are thankful to the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for funding this research through the collaborative project Improving food security in Africa through increased system productivity of biomass-based value webs. The research conducted for this paper was also supported by a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), which is gratefully acknowledged. We would also like to thank the communities and staff respondents from the outgrower schemes who kindly contributed their valuable time and perceptions towards the data collection.

Keywords: Farm; Management (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/277471/files/885.pdf (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:iaae18:277471

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.277471

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia from International Association of Agricultural Economists Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().