This series features the scholarly works supported by the Phnom Penh Plan for Development Management, a region-wide capacity building program of the Asian Development Bank that supports knowledge products and services. It seeks to disseminate research results to a wider audience so that policy makers, implementers, and other stakeholders in the Greater Mekong Subregion can better appreciate and understand the breadth and depth of the region's development challenges.

Contract farming, broadly understood as agricultural production and marketing carried out under a previous agreement between producers and their buyers, supports the production of a wide range of agricultural commodities and its use is growing in many countries. Mindful of the importance of enhancing knowledge and awareness of the legal regime applicable to contract farming operations, the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT), the Food and Agriculture Organizatio n of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) have prepared this UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD Legal Guide on Contract Farming. The Guide is a useful tool and reference point for a broad range of users involved in contract farming practice, policy design, legal research and capacity building. It can contribute as well to create a favourable, equitable and sustainable environment for contract farming.

FAO’s previous contribution to the development of contract farming saw the publication in 2015 of the UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD Legal Guide on Contract Farming, which focused on the bilateral relationship between an agricultural producer and a contractor. This Legislative Study develops that research and focuses on the regulatory frameworks for contract farming, aiming to highlight different possible approaches for different contexts. Responsible contract farming can be a powerful tool for small scale farmers in developing countries to move towards larger scalecommercial production. It can create economic wealth, contribute to supply chain efficiency through the production of higher quantities of better quality products, and contribute to achieving domestic food security objectives. Maximizing these benefits while minimizing the inherent risks of contract farming is reliant upon the forging of an enabling environment, a key part of which is the domestic regulatory framework. This Legislative Study provides guidance to domestic regulators and other interested readers on how to appraise and potentially reform domestic regulatory frameworks to achieve responsible contract farming. Recognising that different countries and contextual realties may benefit from different regulatory solutions, this Study provides several examples, supported by representative case studies, on how contract farming can be regulated, without promoting a single solution as the most appropriate. Please visit FAO’s Contract Farming Resource Centre, http://www.fao.org/in-action/contract-farming/en/, which is a regularly updated website hosting a variety of material on contract farming both from FAO and from other recognized authors.

The Journal of GMS Development Studies is a multidisciplinary peer-reviewed publication that seeks to promote a better understanding of a broad range of development issues of the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS). This journal is published by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) under the framework of the Phnom Penh Plan for Development Management (PPP), a region-wide capacity building program that supports knowledge products and services. It is directed at GMS planners, policy makers, academics, and researchers who, in their unique capacities, continue to search for solutions to the many complex challenges of the subregion. By disseminating knowledge about the GMS, the Journal hopes to stimulate further thinking and debate on GMS issues, thus contributing to informed policy choices, responsive advocacy, and meticulous scholarship.

Growing inequality has become an important concern in many countries. One of the ways that inequality is perpetuated is through differential market access across regions. This research deals with one of the primary determinants of regional inequality manifested in terms of market access. Nepal is one country where hierarchical geography leads to regional inequality. Differential market access can cause as well as accentuate inequality among farmers. Coordination arrangements such as contract farming can improve outcomes for the farmers and integrators on the one hand, but on the other hand it can accentuate inequality if only some regions benefit from it. With this background, in this paper we study the case of contract farming for exports with farmers in remote hilly areas of Nepal. The prospect for contract farming in such areas with accessibility issues owing to underdeveloped markets and lack of amenities is ambiguous. On the one hand, contractors in these areas find it difficult to build links, particularly when final consumers have quality and safety requirements. On the other hand, remoteness can make the contracts more sustainable if the agroecology offers product-specific quality advantages and, more important, if there is a lack of side-selling opportunities. At the same time, concerns remain about buyers’ monopsonistic powers when remotely located small farmers do not have outside options. This study hence quantifies the benefits of contract farming on remotely located farmers’ income and compliance with food safety measures. Results show that contract farming is significantly more profitable (offering a 58 percent greater net income) than independent production, the main pathway being higher price realization, along with training on practices and provision of quality seeds.

Bill Pritchard provides an important update on how current trade methodologies are implemented as China becomes one of the world’s largest fresh fruit importers from countries such as Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam.

This book aims to typify the extent to which contract farming is helping small farmers to access markets and meet increasingly stringent requirements, not only of "modern" food manufacturers, retailers, exporters and food service firms,by also in non-food sectors such as biofuels and forestry. It also seeks to clarify differences in the functionality of contracts depending on commodity, market, technology, public policies and country circumstances. Conceptual issues are discussed and a series of case study appraisals based on real world examples from developing regions are presented. The issuesraised by the case study authors and the key messages synthesized in the initial book chapter bring new insights and contributions to further enrich knowledge on contract farming as a tool for inclusive market access in development countries.

The Southern Economic Corridor (SEC), one of the priority economic corridors under the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS) Economic Cooperation Program, was designated as a GMS flagship initiative in 2002. Efforts have been taken since then, but these were pursued mainly on a project-by-project basis. A series of consultations were conducted to initiate a holistic approach to the development of SEC. The strategy and action plan is the product of these and subsequent consultations with government officials, representatives of the private sector, and other stakeholders in these countries.Besides providing a vision and framework for developing SEC, this strategy and action plan is aimed at improving coordination, ensuring effective implementation, and helping the mobilization of resources and the broadening of support for SEC development. The second GMS Economic Corridors Forum, held in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on 17 September 2009, discussed and generally agreed with the directions set forth in this strategy and action plan.

This compilation of four country case studies provides a comprehensive understanding of challenges, good practices, and lessons learnt under different situations. In the Lao People's Democratic Republic, a cross-border vegetable trade agreement with its neighboring, Thailand, aided in stabilizing market prices and provided financial benefits to local contract farmers. Similarly, organic certification and geographic indication of sugar palm in Cambodia linked local farmers to the global market, while an organic fair trade rice supply chain in Thailand ensured quality assurance and product traceability. Organic certification and fair trade practices in Viet Nam enabled farmers to realize fair trade premium prices for their agricultural products.