The Rwandan government's ongoing reconfiguration of the agricultural sector seeks to facilitate increased penetration of smallholder farming systems by domestic and international capital, which may include some land acquisition (‘land grabbing’) as well as contract farming arrangements. Such contracts are arranged by the state, which sometimes uses coercive mechanisms and interventionist strategies to encourage agricultural investment.

MAE SOT, Thailand - "The conflict-ridden Thai-Myanmar border has long been associated with drug smuggling, arms-dealing and human trafficking and other illicit trades. Now a new investment initiative aims to bring bilateral border trade above ground through the establishment of export-oriented special economic zones (SEZs) in the two countries' hinterlands.

The two sides agreed last month in Mandalay to finalize a long pending agreement, which in the first phases will open the way for

Summary: Since 2005, the Burmese Government has encouraged
investors from China, Thailand, Bangladesh, and Kuwait to
invest in contract farms; to date, only the Thais have a
formal agreement to farm 120,000 acres along the Thai-Burma
border. Over the past six months, several Burmese companies
-- Tay Za's Htoo Trading, Zaw Zaw's Max Myanmar, Steven Law's
Asia World, and Aung Thet Mann's Aye Ya Shwe Wa -- were given
more than 100,000 acres of farmland in the Irrawaddy Delta
and Rangoon Division for contract farming. The Ministry of

Introduction: "The goal of poverty alleviation is now seen as a high priority project for
Myanmar’s new
government.
In
public statements the new President, Thein Sein, has raised issues of
poverty in
Myanmar
as a problem
facing
the country (as opposed to a previous failure to
acknowledge any such problems.)
Support for this goal
was verbally
reiterated
in a
May
2011
Poverty Alleviation Seminar headed by Dr. U Myint, and again, more broadly, at an

SELECTION OF INFORMATIONAL MATERIAL ON CONTRACT FARMING: Contract farming in general...Contract farming in Asian countries...CAMBODIA...PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA...REPUBLIC OF INDONESIA...JAPAN...LAO
PEOPLE'S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC...MALAYSIA...REPUBLIC OF THE UNION OF MYANMAR...REPUBLIC OF THE PHILIPPINES...KINGDOM OF THAILAND...SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM

Includes the globalisation of food production and consumption – structural changes within the international food regimes and contract farming and global commodity chains; contemporary land acquisition; conceptual frameworks – human rights and corporate social responsibility perspectives; case studies of Rwanda and Kenya.

Critical reflections on the concepts, issues and methods that are important for integrating a gender perspective into mainstream research and policy-making on land and agricultural commercialisation in Africa. Informed by case studies in Kenya, Ghana and Zambia. Compares key gender issues that arise across plantation, contract farming and small- and medium-scale commercial farming. Discusses how concepts and research methods derived from the literature may be applied to mainstream research. Highlights the need for an integrated approach to researching gender and agrarian change in Africa.

This paper assesses the role of the private sector by using the case study of Cambodia to learn specific lessons for increasing the resilience of food systems in the developing world. In order to develop a sustainable and lasting impact, it is imperative that both market actors and private actors be involved in addressing the new challenges facing vulnerable food systems.

Contract farming is emerging as an important governance structure in certain agricultural value chains. This study was done with the objectives of understanding the contractual relations between buyers and small-scale growers in the tobacco industry in Malawi and the impact of contract farming on smallholder incomes. Cross-sectional data was collected from 211 contract and 109 non-contract smallholder burley tobacco farmers who sold tobacco in the 2012/13 season. Two analyses were undertaken.

The focus in this paper is on two relatively large maize-based contract farming (CF) schemes with fixed input packages (Masara and Akate) and a number of smaller and more flexible CF schemes in a remote region in Ghana (Upper West). Results show that these schemes led to improved technology adoption and yield increases. In addition, a subset of maize farmers with high yield improvements due to CF participation had high gross margins. However, on average, yields were not high enough to compensate for higher input requirements and cost of capital.

Programs that seek to increase women’s participation in marketing activities related to the principal household economic activity must involve men if they are to be successful. In this paper we analyze take-up of a project that sought to increase women’s involvement in sugarcane marketing and sales by encouraging the registration of a sugarcane block contract in the wife’s name. We find that men who are more educated and live in households with higher wealth and expenditures are more likely to agree to the registration.

Health-related incentives to reward effort or commitment are commonplace in many professional contracts throughout the world. Typically absent from small-scale agriculture in poor countries, such incentives may help overcome both health issues for remote rural families and supply issues for firms. Using a randomized control design, we investigate the impact of adding a micronutrient-fortified product in contracts between a Senegalese dairy processing factory and its seminomadic milk suppliers.