The role of contract farming on household food security in Kenya and Madagascar

Contract farming has been promoted as a better business model of large-scale agricultural investment through protecting smallholder land rights than plantations or estates farming. This study examined the role of contract farming on household food security in Kenya and Madagascar. An endogenous switching regression model was used to control for a possible selection bias due to unobserved factors. The analysis showed that the sex, age and marital status of the household head, the distance of the household from a road and market, the number of livestock and land size determined household participation in contract farming. In general, the three food security indicator results of household dietary diversity score, food consumption score and the months of adequate household food provisioning in Kenya confirmed that engaged in contract farming with a large-scale agricultural investment improved household food security. While in Madagascar, only the months of adequate household food provisioning results confirmed the positive impact of contract farming on household food security. These results revealed that contract farming models do not always have a positive impact on food security. Therefore, the government should consider the types of crops produced by contract farming during agricultural investment promotions.