The Strategy of Contract Farming Development in Iran

Contract farming is considered a vital approach to overcoming some of the severe challenges in Iran’s agricultural sector and revolutionizing the farmer's economic conditions. This farming is considered an institutional arrangement for moving traditional agriculture toward commercial agriculture. Accordingly, the present study seeks to design a strategy for the sustainable development of contract farming. For this purpose, 45 experts, including sponsor company managers and expert farmers, were selected randomly from an approved contract farming company by FAO in the western province of Iran to determine internal and external factors for the success of contract farming. The priority of these factors wasidentifiedusingtheANPmethod in the SWOT matrix. According to the results, the strengths and weaknesses of the sponsor company were the most significant factors in contract farming development. Other than economic factors, social criteria such as bilateral trust between farmers and the sponsor company and lack of satisfactory bail were determined as the significant social criteria of contract farming. According to these results, contract farming should be developed based on its multi-dimensional characteristics through a comprehensive development plan including the technical, economic, legal, educational, cultural, and ecological aspects.