Our Experience

Zimbabwe Smallholder Agriculture Contract Farming Study

Project Description
This six-month World Bank-funded study analyzed the constraints on and opportunities for developing contract farming in Zimbabwe. The study explored how contract farming arrangements can build smallholder productivity, improve the quality of production and increase smallholder incomes while at the same time creating mutually beneficial economic relationships between farmers and buyers.

Project Approach
In consultation with the World Bank, ASI organized a team of Zimbabwean and international consultants with roots in Zimbabwean agriculture to design a participatory process that involved consultation with and feedback from various stakeholders in the agricultural sector.

The study began with desk research to identify focal areas and key commodities. The research was vetted in an interactive workshop where stakeholders identified seven focus crops for the study: maize, sugar, coffee, tobacco, cotton, paprika and horticulture. The team then gathered qualitative and quantitative data and conducted interviews with a wide variety of stakeholders, including contracting firms, contracted farmers, government officials, agribusinesses and financial institutions. The team vetted its findings and results during a consultative workshop with key stakeholders before making final recommendations.

Impact and Accomplishments
ASI found that smallholder-based contract farming has strong potential to alleviate constraints in Zimbabwe’s current operating environment and to provide a good marketing option that reduces risk for farmers and firms in the long term if it is structured and implemented well. ASI’s comprehensive report provided an in-depth review of the challenges and opportunities involved in implementing successful contract farming arrangements as well as detailed recommendations for strategy and policy changes that could facilitate contract farming’s contribution to sustainable and mutually beneficial growth in Zimbabwe.  

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