Impact of Participation in Contract Farming on Smallholder Farmers’ Income and Food Security in Rural Benin: PSM and LATE Parameter Combined

Sustainability

Gu-Cheng Li¹  OdountanAmbaliou Olounlade¹  Dessalegn Anshiso¹  SènakponE. Haroll Kokoye²  FrançoisVihôdé Dossouhoui³  KuassiAuxence Aristide Akpa⁴  Gauthier Biaou⁵ 

[1] College of Economics and Management, Huazhong Agricultural University, No. 1 Shizishan Street, Hongshan District, Wuhan 430070, China;Department of Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, AL 36849, USA;Department of Economy Socio-Anthropology and Communication, University of Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou 01BP526, Benin;Faculté de Philosophie, Arts et Lettres, Université Catholique de Louvain, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium;School of Agribusiness and Agricultural Policy, National University of Agriculture of Benin, Porto-Novo 01BP55, Benin;

关键词: contract farming;    impact;    income;    food security;    rice;    benin;   

DOI  :  10.3390/su12030901

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Investigated in this work is the impact of contract farming participation on smallholder farmers’ income and food security in rice crop production in Northern Benin using 400 randomly selected rice farmer households. Unlike previous studies, we corrected for both observed and unobserved biases by combining propensity score matching (PSM) and the local average treatment effect parameter (LATE). The results showed significant negative consequences of partaking in rice contract farming. We found evidence of significant negative effects on rice production income at a 1% level. The more the rice farmers join in contract farming, the lower the farm income became. Decreased food consumption was also a result of contract farming participation for potential participants by a score of 60.64, placing their households at the food security status level of poor food consumption because the quantity and nutritional quality of the food consumed were inadequate. Contract farming is, therefore, not a reasonable policy instrument that can help farmers increase their income and improve their food security level in the Alibori Department, Benin if farmers do not diversify their crops. The necessary resources and economic environment are not yet in place to allow contract farming to take full advantage of its potential benefits. To prevent the wasting of scarce public resources, expanding contract farming would not be appropriate in marginal areas with markets and other infrastructure. Additional measures are needed for contract farming to be profitable for contracting actors and to ensure sustainability and the large-scale participation of farmers.

【 授权许可】

Unknown