Contract farming– tag –

On 2 ha of poor land in Pa Long, Lao Cai province in northern Vietnam, sweet corn grown for a company by eight ethnic-minority households yielded 15 tonnes/ha in 90 days. Contract production, in which seed, fertilizer, and technology are handed over up front and the entire crop is bought at 6,000 dong per kilogram, levels out cash income in the mountains. We read whether it could become a third candidate growing area for Japan's frozen-corn sourcing.

Buyers appear the moment it is picked in the field—such a chili-growing area is developing on the outskirts of Ho Chi Minh City. In the An Nhon Tay area, formerly called Cu Chi district, farmers who switched the small hot-pepper-type chili "ot chi thien" to contract farming with a company are no longer tossed around by wild price swings...