Contract farming in China

Publication Type

Book Chapter

Publication Date

9-2026

Abstract

As an overview of contract farming (CF) schemes in China, this chapter argues that the prevalence and significance of CF have both been growing in China but is insufficiently understood. This chapter argues that CF has played a more limited role in integrating smallholders into capitalist agrifood value chains in China than elsewhere in the Global South. CF arrangements with smallholders in China, set up to gain control over their production processes, were unstable because smallholders had alternative market access and were less dependent on the contract partners. However, as the number of large-scale producers increases and new technological and commercial developments are introduced, the importance and stability of CF rise. Applying a critical political economy perspective, this chapter intends to extend the study of CF in China beyond economistic analyses of factors shaping participation in, or impact of, CF. This chapter calls for more in-depth empirical studies that situate CF practices in the broader context of agrarian transition in China and examine how the country’s unique political-economic context shapes the dynamics, mechanisms, impacts and implications of CF.

Discipline

Agricultural and Resource Economics | Asian Studies | Sociology

Research Areas

Sociology

Publication

Routledge handbook of contract farming and development

Editor

HAMBLOCH, Caroline; FOLD, Niels; NARAYANAN, Sudha; VICOL, Mark

Identifier

10.4324/9781003513674-37

Publisher

Routledge

City or Country

London

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