Impact of contract farming on smallholder farmers' income and food security in Mozambique. A review

Contract farming can potentially address agricultural market failures, especially in developing countries. However, the debate on how smallholder farmers benefit and the circumstances under which such benefits can be achieved seems to be far from reaching a consensus. This review aimed to analyze the impact of contract farming on smallholder farmers' income and food security in Mozambique using a systematic literature review protocol. The results show that the literature analyzing such relationships is limited. However, contract farming has the potential to increase income, but the nature of the contract, the actors involved, and the crops under the contract appear to be the key determinants of contract farming outcomes. Furthermore, the results show positive selection trends between firms and farmers, making estimating the net effect of contract farming difficult. Concerning food security, the reviewed studies did not allow us to draw consistent conclusions regarding its relationship with contract farming. Therefore, we argue that further research on the impact of contract farming on smallholder farmers' income and food security using consistent methodologies that consider selection bias is needed.