FANRPAN Contract Farming Project

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FANRPAN Contract Farming Project

• By Lindiwe Majele Sibanda
• linds_at_ecoweb.co.zw
• lsibanda_at_mweb.co.za

2
Study Objective

• The objective of the project is to exploit the
  potential of contract farming as an institution
  that can assist to commercialize small-scale
  farmers
• The study will develop policies and action plans
  that can be used to expand the use of contract
  farming in the SADC region.

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Contract Farming Definition

• Contract farming (or out-grower schemes) assumes
  an extensive number of arrangements that link
  small-scale farmers to some type of market as a
  way of supporting them to become successful
  commercial farmers in the long term.

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Contract Farming Definition (CTND)

• The farmers can be linked to markets by either
  formal or informal contracts as a result of some
  type of arrangement with a buyer who adds value
  to the raw commodity in some way (processing,
  storage, marketing).
• For the purposes of the project, the buyer is
  limited to a player in the private sector
  (agribusiness sector) and will exclude the
  government and parastatal bodies.

5
Study Focus

• The focus is on commodities such as groundnuts,
  sorghum, cotton, paprika, sugar, poultry and
  horticulture

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Study Scope

• The study is being undertaken in phases over a
  three year period, starting December 2004 by
  teams selected from country nodes in South
  Africa, Malawi and Zambia
• A start-up planning workshop was held in South
  Africa in November 2004