Does Contract Farming Improve Diet Quality? The Case of Senegalese Smallholders

Abstract

The institution of contract farming has gained prominence in most developing countries owing to its numerous benefits. While several studies have already highlighted the welfare benefits of contract farming, very few have investigated the effects on diet quality, despite poor quality diets being a serious challenge in most parts of the developing world. Moreover, such existing studies deal with contract farming in speciality crops, although contract farming in staple crops may have different effects on diet quality. Therefore, this study evaluates the role of staple crop contracts on diet quality, proxied by two measures of dietary diversity. Using cross‐sectional data from rice‐producing households in Senegal, we employ linear models through ordinary least squares to estimate the relationship between contract farming and diet quality. Our results show that participation in contract farming is positively associated with household dietary diversity and hence, diet quality. Our results further show that income is the main pathway through which contracts and diet quality are associated. With increasing calls for agriculture to be nutrition‐sensitive, our results suggest that the institution of contract farming can play an important role in this regard by improving diet quality.