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Journal of Integrative Agriculture  2018, Vol. 17 Issue (2): 473-482    DOI: 10.1016/S2095-3119(17)61752-0
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One size fits all?  Contract farming among broiler producers in China
HUANG Ze-ying1, XU Ying2, ZENG Di2, WANG Chen1, WANG Ji-min1
1 Institute of Agricultural Economics and Development, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100081, P.R.China
2 Centre for Global Food and Resources, University of Adelaide, Adelaide 5005, Australia
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Abstract  Contract farming has been increasingly found to benefit smallholders in developing countries, yet much less is known about its role in the poultry industry where economies of scale could be more prominent.  This study aims to narrow this gap by analysing the choice of contract farming among Chinese broiler producers using a nationally representative survey.  Simply cost-benefit analysis and multinomial logit regression modelling are jointly employed to explain contract farming decision making especially among small producers.  In contrast to many recent studies, we find that small producers, though not passively excluded, usually opt out of contract farming due to limited profitability when large producers are coexistent.  Such relationship is appropriately identified through a control function approach to correct for possible endogeneity.  Therefore, contract farming may not help achieve higher welfare goals for small broiler producers who actually instead seek alternative market opportunities that better realise their comparative advantages. 
Keywords:  contract farming        broiler        price        multinomial logit        China  
Received: 10 April 2017   Accepted:
Fund: 

This study is supported by the earmarked fund for the Agricultural Science and Technology Innovation Program, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (ASTIP-IAED-2017) and the Modern Agro-industry Technology Research System, the Ministry of Agriculture of China (CARS-42-G24).

Corresponding Authors:  Correspondence WANG Ji-min,E-mail:wangjimin@caas.cn   
About author:  HUANG Ze-ying, E-mail:huangzeying@caas.cn

Cite this article: 

HUANG Ze-ying, XU Ying, ZENG Di, WANG Chen, WANG Ji-min. 2018. One size fits all?  Contract farming among broiler producers in China. Journal of Integrative Agriculture, 17(2): 473-482.

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