One of the Millennium Development Goals adopted by the United Nations is the eradication of extreme hunger and poverty. Since a large proportion of the population in developing countries is rural, and engaged in agriculture, this goal is closely related to profitability and crop yield management of small-scale farmers in those countries. The most common approach for addressing the problems of the global and national food security as well as the rural poverty and equity issues has been government intervention. While such interventions are well intentioned and often provide short-term relief to farmers, their outcomes have been at best mixed in terms of providing long-term sustainable solutions. Meanwhile, the private sector may play an increasing role in improving the overall efficiency in the agriculture industry and the agri-business industry. One of the avenues of forming a symbiotic partnership between private corporations and farmers is through contract farming. Despite several potential advantages of contract farming to both the corporation and the farmers, one of the problems associated with its implementation is that farmers may sell outside the contract.
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