Contract Farming of High-Quality Rice in Kampong Speu

Abstract

Contract farming is seen as one of the policies to overcome current impediments to commercialisation in the Cambodian rice sector. The Angkor Kasekam Roongroeung Co. Ltd. (AKR) was the first agribusiness firm to implement contract farming of rice, beginning in 1999 with about 100 farmers; it currently claims to have over 50,000 contracted farmers in four provinces (AKM 2015). The approach was later adopted by other development organisations, such as the Cambodian Centre for Study and Development in Agriculture (CEDAC). A study by Cai et al. (2008), for the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), on the impacts of AKR's rice contract farming scheme on farmers' performance provides some useful insights. In general, however, little is known about rice contract farming N. Keosothea (*) National Committee, Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific,

The Role of Private and Public Agricultural Sector Advisory Service Institutions in Linking Small-Scale Vegetable Farmers to Contract Farming

“…However, the translation of national policy objectives into practical strategies and mechanisms, leading to the development of commercially driven and sustainable contract farming models, still constitutes a significant challenge to policymakers, agri-business enterprises, farmers' organisations and financial institutions (Salami, Kamara & Brixiova, 2010;Mazi, Chemura, Mudimi & Chambati, 2019). Mishra, Kumar, Joshi and D'Souza (2018), Keosothea and Molyaneth (2020) and Ye, Lin and Li (2020), who analysed contract farming in Thailand, found that the Thai government was engaged in the promotion of contract farming to speed up the commercialisation of the subsistence agricultural sector. Regardless of the Thai government's involvement in contract farming, the companies and small-scale farmers involved did the work themselves (Ye et al, 2020).…”

“…Furthermore, Wittayakun et al (2019) argue that the intervention was ineffective in making the system fair for small-scale farmers in terms of the nature of the contracts or helping farmer organisations process and market collective selling to companies. The government needed to play a more regulatory role instead of a promotional one (Keosothea & Molyaneth, 2020).…”