Contract Farming and Children's Education: Evidence From Maize Producers in Ghana

Abstract

The institution of contract farming (CF) has continued to proliferate in the small farm sector of developing countries. While its effects on smallholders across welfare outcomes such as income and food security have been well documented, there are growing concerns about its broader social implications especially on children. Yet, there is little empirical evidence about such social implications. In this paper, we address this gap by studying the role of CF on children's education, a critical component of human capital and sustainable development. Our study focuses in the Wa East District of Ghana. Employing different empirical approaches, our results show that CF is negatively associated with children's education measured by expenditure on education and days of school attended. Our results are robust to alternative estimation methods. The results underscore the need to look beyond the economic benefits of CF and focus on their broader social implications especially in the study area.