IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ind/igiwpp/2012-021.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Safe gambles? Farmer perceptions of transactional certainty and risk-return tradeoffs in contract farming schemes in Southern India

Author

Listed:
  • Sudha Narayanan

    (Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research)

Abstract

This paper examines the idea that contract farming arrangements in developing countries even while offering farmers insurance against certain kinds of risks could simultaneously exacerbate other risks or entail new risks of their own. If correct, farmer perceptions of risks and returns would vary systematically across farmers with different contracting status and also across schemes. Using survey data that elicits subjective distributions of returns and psychometric mapping of risk perceptions from farmers, the study finds that contract farming, not unlike its alternatives, is associated with multiple dimensions of uncertainty and sources of risk, in ways that likely influence participation.

Suggested Citation

  • Sudha Narayanan, 2012. "Safe gambles? Farmer perceptions of transactional certainty and risk-return tradeoffs in contract farming schemes in Southern India," Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai Working Papers 2012-021, Indira Gandhi Institute of Development Research, Mumbai, India.
    • Handle: RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2012-021
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.igidr.ac.in/pdf/publication/WP-2012-021.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. John L. Dillon & Pasquale L. Scandizzo, 1978. "Risk Attitudes of Subsistence Farmers in Northeast Brazil: A Sampling Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 60(3), pages 425-435.
    2. Hans P. Binswanger, 1980. "Attitudes Toward Risk: Experimental Measurement in Rural India," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 62(3), pages 395-407.
    3. Nava Ashraf & Xavier Giné & Dean Karlan, 2009. "Finding Missing Markets (and a Disturbing Epilogue): Evidence from an Export Crop Adoption and Marketing Intervention in Kenya," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(4), pages 973-990.
    4. Joyotee Smith & Abraham M. Mandac, 1995. "Subjective versus Objective Yield Distributions as Measures of Production Risk," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 77(1), pages 152-161.
    5. Adeline Delavande, 2008. "Pill, Patch, Or Shot? Subjective Expectations And Birth Control Choice," International Economic Review, Department of Economics, University of Pennsylvania and Osaka University Institute of Social and Economic Research Association, vol. 49(3), pages 999-1042, August.
    6. Michelson, Hope & Reardon, Thomas & Perez, Francisco, 2012. "Small Farmers and Big Retail: Trade-offs of Supplying Supermarkets in Nicaragua," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(2), pages 342-354.
    7. Eswaran, Mukesh & Kotwal, Ashok, 1985. "A Theory of Contractual Structure in Agriculture," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 75(3), pages 352-367, June.
    8. William Grisley & Earl D. Kellogg, 1983. "Farmers' Subjective Probabilities in Northern Thailand: An Elicitation Analysis," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 65(1), pages 74-82.
    9. Bellemare, Marc F., 2012. "As You Sow, So Shall You Reap: The Welfare Impacts of Contract Farming," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 40(7), pages 1418-1434.
    10. Charles R. Knoeber & Walter N. Thurman, 1995. ""Don't Count Your Chickens...": Risk and Risk Shifting in the Broiler Industry," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 77(3), pages 486-496.
    11. Doss, Cheryl & McPeak, John & Barrett, Christopher B., 2008. "Interpersonal, Intertemporal and Spatial Variation in Risk Perceptions: Evidence from East Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(8), pages 1453-1468, August.
    12. Bharat Ramaswami & Pratap Singh Birthal & P.K. Joshi, 2005. "Efficiency and distribution in contract farming:The case of Indian poultry growers," Discussion Papers 05-01, Indian Statistical Institute, Delhi.
    13. Xavier Giné & Robert Townsend & James Vickery, 2008. "Patterns of Rainfall Insurance Participation in Rural India," The World Bank Economic Review, World Bank, vol. 22(3), pages 539-566, October.
    14. Gine, Xavier & Klonner, Stefan, 2005. "Credit constraints as a barrier to technology adoption by the poor : lessons from South Indian small-scale fishery," Policy Research Working Paper Series 3665, The World Bank.
    15. Suresh de Mel & David McKenzie & Christopher Woodruff, 2009. "Returns to Capital in Microenterprises: Evidence from a Field Experiment," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 124(1), pages 423-423.
    16. Lybbert, Travis J. & Barrett, Christopher B. & McPeak, John G. & Luseno, Winnie K., 2007. "Bayesian Herders: Updating of Rainfall Beliefs in Response to External Forecasts," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 35(3), pages 480-497, March.
    17. Nigel Key, 2005. "How much do farmers value their independence?," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 33(1), pages 117-126, July.
    18. Barrett, Christopher B. & Bachke, Maren E. & Bellemare, Marc F. & Michelson, Hope C. & Narayanan, Sudha & Walker, Thomas F., 2010. "Smallholder Participation in Agricultural Value Chains: Comparative Evidence from Three Continents," MPRA Paper 27829, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    19. Jeff Dominitz & Charles F. Manski, 1996. "Eliciting Student Expectations of the Returns to Schooling," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 31(1), pages 1-26.
    20. Foster, Andrew D & Rosenzweig, Mark R, 1996. "Technical Change and Human-Capital Returns and Investments: Evidence from the Green Revolution," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 86(4), pages 931-953, September.
    21. Yaw Nyarko & Andrew Schotter, 2002. "An Experimental Study of Belief Learning Using Elicited Beliefs," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 70(3), pages 971-1005, May.
    22. Norris, Patricia E. & Kramer, Randall A., 1990. "The Elicitation of Subjective Probabilities with Applications in Agricultural Economics," Review of Marketing and Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 58(02-03), pages 1-21, December.
    23. Anderson, Jock R. & Dillon, John L. & Hardaker, Brian, 1977. "Agricultural Decision Analysis," Monographs: Applied Economics, AgEcon Search, number 288652.
    24. C. Barrett & K. Smith & P. Box, 2001. "Not Necessarily In The Same Boat: Heterogeneous Risk Assessment Among East African Pastoralists," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(5), pages 1-30.
    25. H. M. G. Herath & J. Brian Hardaker & Jock R. Anderson, 1982. "Choice of Varieties by Sri Lanka Rice Farmers: Comparing Alternative Decision Models," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 64(1), pages 87-93.
    26. Glover, David J., 1987. "Increasing the benefits to smallholders from contract farming: Problems for farmers' organizations and policy makers," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 15(4), pages 441-448, April.
    27. Reardon, Thomas & Barrett, Christopher B. & Berdegué, Julio A. & Swinnen, Johan F.M., 2009. "Agrifood Industry Transformation and Small Farmers in Developing Countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 37(11), pages 1717-1727, November.
    28. Delavande, Adeline & Giné, Xavier & McKenzie, David, 2011. "Measuring subjective expectations in developing countries: A critical review and new evidence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(2), pages 151-163, March.
    29. Elke U. Weber & Richard A. Milliman, 1997. "Perceived Risk Attitudes: Relating Risk Perception to Risky Choice," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 43(2), pages 123-144, February.
    30. Edgardo Moscardi & Alain de Janvry, 1977. "Attitudes Toward Risk Among Peasants: An Econometric Approach," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 59(4), pages 710-716.
    31. Ashraf, Nava & Giné, Xavier & Karlan, Dean S., 2009. "AJAE appendix for “Finding Missing Markets (and a Disturbing Epilogue): Evidence from an Export Crop Adoption and Marketing Intervention in Kenya”," American Journal of Agricultural Economics APPENDICES, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 91(4), pages 1-9, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Michelson, Hope & Boucher, Stephen R. & Bai, Junfei & Jia, Xiangping & Huang, Jikun & Chen, Xinzhe, 2013. "Supermarket Supply Chains with Chinese Characteristics: The Case of Walmart's Direct Farms," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 150441, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Michelson, Hope, 2015. ""You Quit?" Influence of Neighbor Experience and Exit on Small Farmer Market Participation," MPRA Paper 62239, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    3. Aleksandra Tošović-Stevanović & Vladimir Ristanović & Dragan Ćalović & Goran Lalić & Milena Žuža & Gorica Cvijanović, 2020. "Small Farm Business Analysis Using the AHP Model for Efficient Assessment of Distribution Channels," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-15, December.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Feyisa, Ashenafi Duguma & Maertens, Miet & de Mey, Yann, 2023. "Relating risk preferences and risk perceptions over different agricultural risk domains: Insights from Ethiopia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 162(C).
    2. Briones, Roehlano M., 2015. "Small Farmers in High-Value Chains: Binding or Relaxing Constraints to Inclusive Growth?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 43-52.
    3. Adeline Delavande & Hans-Peter Kohler, 2009. "Subjective expectations in the context of HIV/AIDS in Malawi," Demographic Research, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research, Rostock, Germany, vol. 20(31), pages 817-875.
    4. Arouna, Aminou & Michler, Jeffrey D. & Lokossou, Jourdain C., 2021. "Contract farming and rural transformation: Evidence from a field experiment in Benin," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    5. Agarwal, Sandip Kumar, 2017. "Subjective beliefs and decision making under uncertainty in the field," ISU General Staff Papers 201701010800006248, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    6. Agarwal, Sandip & Jacobs, Keri L. & Weninger, Quinn, 2016. "Elicitation of Subjective Beliefs: A Pilot study of farmers' nitrogen management decision-making in Central Iowa," ISU General Staff Papers 201601010800001005, Iowa State University, Department of Economics.
    7. Cristina Romero Granja & Meike Wollni, 2018. "Dynamics of smallholder participation in horticultural export chains: evidence from Ecuador," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(2), pages 225-235, March.
    8. Hurley, Terrance M., 2010. "A review of agricultural production risk in the developing world," Working Papers 188476, HarvestChoice.
    9. Sylvaine Lemeilleur, 2014. "The role of input vouchers in modernizing the fresh fruit and vegetable market in Turkey," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(4), pages 477-487, July.
    10. B Kelsey Jack, "undated". "Market Inefficiencies and the Adoption of Agricultural Technologies in Developing Countries," CID Working Papers 50, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
    11. Lien, Gudbrand, 2002. "Non-parametric estimation of decision makers' risk aversion," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 27(1), pages 75-83, May.
    12. Kramer, Berber & Kunst, David, 2017. "Intertemporal choice and income regularity: Non-fungibility in a lab-in-the-field experiment," IFPRI discussion papers 1646, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    13. Marra, Michele & Pannell, David J. & Abadi Ghadim, Amir, 2003. "The economics of risk, uncertainty and learning in the adoption of new agricultural technologies: where are we on the learning curve?," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 75(2-3), pages 215-234.
    14. Tina L. Saitone & Richard J. Sexton & Benoît Malan, 2018. "Price premiums, payment delays, and default risk: understanding developing country farmers’ decisions to market through a cooperative or a private trader," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(3), pages 363-380, May.
    15. Brian Blackburn & Aprajit Mahajan & Alessandro Tarozzi & Joanne Yoong, "undated". "Bednets, Information and Malaria in Orissa," Discussion Papers 08-025, Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research.
    16. Gomez-Limon, Jose A. & Arriaza, Manuel & Riesgo, Laura, 2003. "An MCDM analysis of agricultural risk aversion," European Journal of Operational Research, Elsevier, vol. 151(3), pages 569-585, December.
    17. Annemie Maertens & A. V. Chari & David R. Just, 2014. "Why Farmers Sometimes Love Risks: Evidence from India," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(2), pages 239-274.
    18. Swinnen, Johan & Kuijpers, Rob, 2020. "Inclusive Value Chains to Accelerate Poverty Reduction in Africa," Jobs Group Papers, Notes, and Guides 31809214, The World Bank.
    19. Gomez-Limon, Jose Antonio & Riesgo, Laura & Arriaza Balmón, Manuel, 2002. "Agricultural Risk Aversion Revisited: A Multicriteria Decision-Making Approach," 2002 International Congress, August 28-31, 2002, Zaragoza, Spain 24827, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. Rosegrant, Mark W. & Roumasset, James A., 1985. "The Effect Of Fertiliser On Risk: A Heteroscedastic Production Function With Measurable Stochastic Inputs," Australian Journal of Agricultural Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 29(2), pages 1-15, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    JEL classification:

    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness
    • D84 - Microeconomics - - Information, Knowledge, and Uncertainty - - - Expectations; Speculations

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ind:igiwpp:2012-021. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Shamprasad M. Pujar (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/igidrin.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.