search query: @all failure / total: 1463
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| Author: | Brambilla, I. Porto, G.G. |
| Title: | Market structure, outgrower contracts and farm output. Evidence from cotton reforms in Zambia |
| Journal: | Oxford Economic Papers
2011 : DEC, VOL. 63:4, p. 740-766 |
| Index terms: | industrial organization crop cultivation cotton industry credit reforms marketing Zambia |
| Language: | eng |
| Abstract: | This study examines the dynamic effects of cotton marketing reforms on farm output in rural Zambia. Following liberalization and the termination of the Zambian cotton marketing board, the sector developed an outgrower system where cotton firms provided credit, access to inputs and output markets, and technical assistance to the farmers. There are two distinctive reform phases: a failure of the outgrower contracts, arising from farmers' debt renegation, firm hold up, and insufficient coordination among firms and farms, and a subsequent period of success of the system, thanks to enhanced contract enforcement and commitment. Interesting dynamics are found in the sector. During the failure, farmers were pushed back into subsistence and cotton production per hectare declined. With the improvement of the outgrower system, farmers held larger shares of land to cash crops, resulting to significantly increase of farm output. |
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