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ABSTRACT
This study investigates the drivers of farmers’ dissatisfaction with market-specification contracts for finger millet crop in Kenya. The researcher analysed data from 336 farmers contracted by USOMI, out of which a sub-sample of 146 farmers who grew millet in 2021 was analysed using a probit model and descriptive analysis approach, which showed that asymmetric information related to the role of the contracting firm, lack of adequate understanding of the contract, poor pricing, and input market imperfections are some of the critical constraints and sources of dissatisfaction in the commercialisation of millet farming in Western Kenya. On the other hand, farmers’ satisfaction is driven by access to market and reasonable prices offered by the spot market traders. While the study found out that productivity and pricing were not gendered, it was observed that women were generally satisfied with contract farming. Consequently, contractual schemes should integrate complementary factors such as input provision. While the results do not show explicit benefits to women farmers, they do allow for the backing of contract farming in rural development programs to reduce gender inequalities.
Acknowledgments
The author thanks Innovate UK for its generous support in funding the data collection and analysis exercise. The author thanks USOMI for providing the list of the contracted farmers and the support during the field work. The author also thanks the enumerators, data collection supervisor (Conrad Ojiambo), and the respondents for their support in data collection. I would also like to thank Mwalya Wambua and Arnold Muthanga for the data-management services.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.