Contract farming, and the success of smallholders in rubber production in Côte d’Ivoire

Abstract

Contract farming, and the success of smallholders in rubber production in Cote d'Ivoire Some multinationals are currently investing in massive land purchases and, in so doing, they are threatening family farmers, at least to the extent that they are depriving them of land. Contract farming can be revisited as an alternative. We hypothesize a reduction in social conflicts and a process of technical and institutional innovation. We tested this hypothesis during a survey of 350 farms conducted in 2008 in the West Central Region of Cote d'Ivoire. The basic income of the small rubber farmers we surveyed came from cocoa, but half had adopted rubber. In Cote d'Ivoire, family rubber farms are part of a value chain in which plantation companies still play a key role in providing technical back-up and in purchasing the farmers' rubber. This structure, which resembles contract farming, brought rubber cultivation to the villages at a strategic moment in the decline of cocoa, helping the planters to reinvest, readjust their income, and subsequently to save, as payments for rubber were organized through banks. On the whole, the balance is thus positive for private and public companies and for family farmers. However, the question concerning the development of large plantations by high ranking civil servants and their pressure on land remains open.