Author : Do Truong Lam

Summary : The study determined the factors that influenced the swine farmers' decision to enter into a contract arrangement with buyers and input suppliers using multinomial logit and probit analyses. It also compared production and marketing costs, price received, and profit between swine farmers who entered into contract arrangements and independent swine farmers in Hung Yen Province, Vietnam. The results revealed that the significant factors that affected that farmers' decision to enter into contract arrangements in swine production were the farmer's age and educational attainment, the proportion of time spent in swine raising, the number of swine head raised, the distance of the farm to the Vietnam Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development, the distance of the farm to commercial input suppliers, and the distance of the farm to veterinary shops. Results of the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) showed that the mean production and marketing costs, price received, and profit between swine farmers who entered into contract arrangement and the independent swine farmers in the study area were significantly different. Policy recommendations that will encourage smallholder participation in contract farming include provision of credit assistance to independent smallholders, conduct of training courses on improved swine production practices, and assistance in the preparation of production-marketing contracts that will benefit the swine farmers.