 Marketing and Production Contracts Are Widely Used in U.S. AgricultureJames MacDonald and Christopher Burns Amber Waves:The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America, 2019, vol. July 2019, issue 06 Abstract: Contracts are widely used in the production and sale of U.S agricultural commodities. Contracts provide farmers with a tool for managing income risks, obtaining compensation for higher product quality, and providing assurance for debt financing. Processors use contracts to maintain timely flows of products with desired attributes and greater control over the characteristics and consistency of the products they acquire. In 2017, 49 percent of the value of livestock production was raised under contract agreements—usually between farmers and processors—while contracts governed 21 percent of crop production. The share of crops produced under contract has declined in recent years as farmers turned to other methods for managing risks, such as diversification, hedging through futures markets, and investing in storage. Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; Farm Management; Livestock Production/Industries; Marketing; Production Economics; Risk and Uncertainty (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:uersaw:302725 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Amber Waves:The Economics of Food, Farming, Natural Resources, and Rural America from United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service Contact information at EDIRC. |
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