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| Title: | Contracting under Conditions of Liberalization: The Case of Tobacco in Kenya |
| Author: | Otieno, Joseph O. |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Periodical: | African Rural and Urban Studies |
| Volume: | 3 |
| Issue: | 3 |
| Pages: | 199-221 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Kenya |
| Subjects: | contract farming marketing tobacco Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology Labor and Employment Economics and Trade |
| Abstract: | Based on fieldwork conducted in 1995-1996, the author explores how policy changes in the agricultural sector have affected tobacco marketing in Kuria district, Kenya. He examines the importance of contract farming in Africa, discusses recent policy changes in tobacco marketing in Kenya and how the farmers and companies involved have reacted to these changes in Kuria. He argues that while contract farming has certain specific advantages for the smallholder farmers, its gains, especially from market liberalization, are limited by two major factors. First, contracting represents an imperfect market structure since producer prices are normally set at the start of the planting season and positive changes in market prices are not transferred to the farmer. Second, these gains are limited by the relatively weak bargaining position of the farmers. In addition, government policy interventions, ranging from legal regulation of tobacco marketing to liberalization of agricultural marketing, have all contributed to weakening farmers' bargaining position and to reducing their alternatives. Bibliogr., notes. |