Income Perspective of Contract Farming Across Globe: A Bibliometric Review

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to provide a report on scientific production in the field of the role of contract farming in farmers’ income and pinpoint research gaps. For this purpose, content and citation analysis using R-based Biblioshiny and visualization using VOSviewer were performed. A total of 228 articles were selected from Scopus database which were reduced to 159 in accordance with their relevancy. The analysis shows that although farmer income is one of the most significant social sustainability issues, the field is still underrepresented and has received considerable academic attention only in recent years. The majority of contemporary studies have come from a South Asian perspective, with India and the USA being the two major contributors. The currently available literature focuses mainly on a few key aspects, such as the advantages, difficulties, and historical background of contract farming. However, several crucial issues, such as the sustainability of contract farming, farmers’ bargaining power, and autonomy are not addressed. Hence, empirical data is scant. The major limitation is the reliance on a single data source, namely Scopus, and it is highly probable that additional beneficial researches that are not included in Scopus will continue to be overlooked.