Small-holder farmers and the contract farming concept

There is a major concern of how the gains of the economic growth, especially in the third world countries are being felt by just a small section of the population, with the majority only marginally taking part in the economic transformation as well as in accessing these gains. The heart of this majority in most cases is the smallholder farmers. One of the pointers of this economic growth is the industrial growth whereby agricultural based industries have taken a giant share.These industries maybe viewed as an intervention in respect to the smallholders farmers plight but in the contrary in most cases these farmers are alienated from the process of commercialization of agriculture and economic growth at large. However, there are certain ways in which smallholder farmers maybe brought on board, one possible way is through contract farming, by contracting the smallholder farmers as opposed to relying exclusively on such methods as plantation farming.This way,the farmers will share in the benefits from these industries. There is therefore the need to understand the social economic factors of these smallholder farmers by everybody who aspires to see equitable resources distribution.

Autorentext

The author is a holder of a first degree in agricultural economics from the University of Nairobi.