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In formulating his theory of land rent, Ricardo did not take into account the fact that in the Europe of his time relationships between landlords and tenants were often regulated by customs that kept rents below marginal product, sometimes even in the long term. Since all those customs had a number of points in common, understanding the logic governing one of them can be a very useful way to gain an overall understanding of the phenomenon. This chapter analyses a case of such customs in the area of market-gardens surrounding the city of Valencia, eastern Spain. Here, tenants were by custom the owners of the improvements they carried out, agricultural efficiency increased, and land rents stagnated. The chapter addresses issues such as cooperation among large groups of people, definition of rights and the creation of property rights by means of social conventions that clashed with law.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a contemporary perspective on post land reform Zimbabwe with special focus on the youth. It uses the social reproduction conceptual framework to show that two decades after land reform, there are generational questions which are now arising in the new resettlement areas which need deeper, empirical and more nuanced analysis to comprehend. In a context where some countries in Southern Africa are grappling with the best ways of dealing with their land questions, it shows that from a youth perspective, the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) has important lessons.

The study was largely qualitative and grounded in an interpretive research paradigm. It employed various data gathering instruments and solicited for responses from 151 young people as well as 11 key informants. The study used the social reproduction perspective as a conceptual and evaluative tool to ascertain the outcomes of the FTLRP from a social reproduction perspective with special focus on young people.

The study showed that there are some young people in the resettlement areas who blame the land reform programme for the challenging socio-economic situation which they are facing. It also shows that for the youth, the FTLRP has had multi-dimensional impact; while some are complaining, others have managed to use their agency to access natural resources and land, which has seen them “accumulating from below”. For some young people, land reform has positively transformed their lives, while others feel that it has limited their opportunities.

The paper provides new and contemporary insights on post land reform Zimbabwe. This is an area which is increasingly gaining traction in scholarship on the FTLRP. In addition, the paper provides a unique perspective of looking at the issue of the youth from a social reproduction perspective; this is a unique academic contribution. Lastly, the paper is useful insofar as it transcends the debates on the FTLRP to proffer a unique analysis on the social reproduction dimensions of the FTLRP.

In the debate on rural development, contract farming (CF) is pointed out as a mechanism that reduces constraints on farmers' access to resources and improves farmers' welfare. However, the role of intermediaries' power in farmers' contracting decisions has not been investigated thoroughly. Considering that intermediaries' power affects farmers' businesses, livelihoods, risk and profit sharing, it becomes imperative to understand its effects on contracting decisions. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the dimensions over which intermediaries exercise the power they hold over farmers and how these power dimensions influence farmers' participation in CF.

A survey was conducted in the leading Albanian MAP production region, Malësi e Madhe, with 168 sage producers interviewed using a structured questionnaire. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) is employed to develop measures for the latent variables of the study (e.g. intermediaries' power), and a logit regression is used to assess CF determinants.

The study finds that intermediaries exercise their power over different dimensions of farmers' activities, namely profit margin and activities related to product quality. The results point out that intermediaries' exercised power over farmers' margins and product quality-related activities decreased farmers' likelihood to engage in CF. On the other hand, a farmer's commitment to the intermediary and investment in specific assets increased the likelihood of participation. Furthermore, the analysis shows that CF does not leave small farmers out of high-value agricultural commodity chains (HVAC) for highly labour-intensive crops.

The analysis focuses only on one sector with export orientation. Generalisation to other sectors is limited due to the specific features of the MAPs value chain.

The paper expands the debate on CF by adding the concept of intermediaries' power and its different dimensions of influence on farmers' participation in CF.

The study sought to determine the possibility of supplier development in the form of contract farming as a determinant of supply chain resilience in fast-food outlets. This is against the background of the restaurant having been designated as one of the industries that remained operational when the other industries were affected by the two-decade-long economic meltdown and more recently COVID-19 pandemic.

Data were collected using questionnaires from the consenting restaurants with the most senior procurement personnel in target restaurants as the informants and analysed using analysis of moment structures (AMOS) software.

The results revealed that indeed supplier development in the form of contract farming leads to supply chain resilience as indicated by improved supply chain visibility, supply chain flexibility, and supply chain redundancy. Fast-food restaurant businesses that have not yet adopted supplier development in the form of contract farming are therefore encouraged to adopt it as a way of enhancing their resilience to traditional supply chain disruptions such as transport shortages, droughts, and more recently COVID-19 pandemic.

It is to the best knowledge of these researchers, that no studies have attempted to analyse the three drivers of supply chain resilience, namely supply chain redundancy, supply chain flexibility, and supply chain visibility in a single study and link them to a single antecedent.

Even though many studies identify positive effects of contract farming (CF) on the livelihood of farmers, the use of CF as a tool to increase farm performance is unsettled debate. Information on CF is relatively not available in staple food chains. Theoretical considerations have shown that there are challenges in employing CF in staple food chains such as rice. With the increasing trend of rice CF in Ghana, it is very critical to establish its performance in rice production in Ghana. It is therefore imperative to analyse the impact of CF on the performance of smallholder rice farmers.

A survey was conducted where 350 rice farmers selected through a stratified sampling technique using structured questionnaires were interviewed. Descriptive and inferential statistics including stochastic frontier analyses and endogenous treatment effect regression were used to analyse the data.

The results from the endogenous treatment effect regression model show that CF improves rice farmers' technical, allocative and economic efficiencies by 21, 23 and 26%, respectively. Farm size and CF were identified as common factors influencing technical, allocative and economic efficiency measures of the farmers positively. It further identified age of farmer, educational level and household labour as factors influencing farmers' participation in CF positively.

It is recommended that CF is a good tool to enhance rice production efficiency, and hence, farmers should be encouraged to participate in CF as strategy to enhance the local rice production in Ghana.

The outcome of this study has the potential to influence rice production in the country. The country is a net importer of rice and just about 35% self-sufficient in rice production.

This study is the first to assess performance of CF in rice crop production in Ghana and also one of the few to use efficiency as a performance measure.

The purpose of this paper is to quantify the benefits of contract farming (CF) on farmers’ income and adoption of food safety measures (FSMs) at the farm level. The paper also investigates the determinants of participation in CF.

The study is based on a survey of 600 tomato farmers from Nepal. Descriptive statistics, regression analysis (using instrumental variable) and propensity score matching have been used to accomplish the objectives of the study.

The study found that the CF ensures higher returns to farmers as well as higher adoption of FSMs at the farm level. The contract farmers earned about 38 per cent higher net returns and had 38 per cent higher adoption of FSM as compared to independent farmers. Caste, occupation, farm size and cropping intensity significantly affected farmers’ participation in CF.

The analysis based on cross-section data has limitations to consider unobserved farmer-level individual heterogeneity.

This study will provide an empirical base to promote CF in Nepal. The study will also contribute to bridge the gap in literature on the drivers of CF and its impact on smallholders’ income and compliance with FSM in Nepal.

Contract farming (CF) is seen as a tool for creating new market opportunities hence increasing incomes for smallholder farmers. Critics, however, argue that CF is likely to pass risks to small scale farmers, thus favouring large scale farmers at the expense of smallholder farmers. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of CF on smallholder farmers’ income using a case study of avocado farmers in Kandara district in Kenya.

The study uses data collected from 100 smallholder avocado farmers in Kandara district in Kenya and employs an instrumental variable model (Probit-2SLS) to control for endogeneity in participation in the contract and examine the effect of CF on household, farm and avocado income.

The results indicate that participation in CF is not sufficient to improve household, farm and avocado income. Question remains regarding efficient implementation of CF arrangements to promote spill over effects on other household enterprises.

The research was carried out using farmers in Kandara district in Kenya as a case study, findings might therefore not reflect the status of CF in all countries.

The paper contributes to the growing debate on the effect of value chain upgrading strategies such as contracting on smallholder farmers’ welfare. The form of contracting studied in this paper differs from the standard contracts in that the key stakeholders (producers) are loosely enjoined in the contract through officials of their groups.

The purpose of this paper is to offer an empirical analysis of contract farming (CF) for poultry in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh in India.

Through a probit equation, the factors that matter to their participation in contracting are evaluated. The estimation of income gains is considered within a treatment effects model. The risk benefits from contracting are estimated by simulating the variability of returns if the contract farmers were to be independent growers.

This paper shows that the poultry integrators in Andhra Pradesh are able to appropriate almost the entire efficiency gains from contracting. Yet, the contract growers are better off with the contract. This outcome is because of grower heterogeneity and the way it is employed in the selection of contract growers. The paper also finds that contract growers do gain substantially in terms of risk reduction.

The CF literature reminds us that these arrangements often fail because of opportunistic behavior. The poultry example shows that contracting is a useful institution when processor interests are closely aligned to that of the grower. This paper describes the circumstances under which this alignment is obtained.

First, it adds to the small and growing body of work that estimates the income gains to contract growers. Second and going beyond existing work on developing countries, this paper also addresses the risk benefits from contracting. Thirdly, this paper estimates the income gains from contracting to the processing firms.