Impact of Contract Farming in West Bengal, India

Contract farming is defined as a system for the production and supply of agricultural or horticultural produce under forward contracts between producers/suppliers and buyers. Contract farming offers the advantage of reduced capital investment, reduced risk of price fluctuation, guaranteed returns and provision of technical assistance to the farmers. The study was purposively conducted in Burdwan district of West Bengal, India, as the state is the second highest producer of potato in the country. Contract farming helped the farmers to diversify their farm, increased the employment opportunity and area under potato. It also helped the farmers to get more net benefit from potato. After engaging in contract farming the farmers used various inputs for potato cultivation more judiciously but not in higher quantity than the non contract farmers. There was not any major environmental disadvantage of potato contract farming except the emergence of new pest and diseases of potato. The knowledge level of the contract farmers about potato production technology and the disease management practices of potato were significantly higher than the non contract farmers..........