Promoting Effectiveness and Fairness in Agricultural Production Agreements. The UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD Legal Guide on Contract Farming

Contract farming, broadly understood as agricultural production carried out under a previous agreement between producers and their buyers, is increasingly preferred to other forms of exchange due to its positive economic but also social implications. Often lacking a dedicated regulatory framework at the domestic level, contract farming has recently attracted the attention of international organizations such as the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations which, together with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), have prepared a legal Guide intended to provide soft guidance for the creation of a more efficient and fairer environment for this kind of economic activity. After summarizing the history and the intended purpose of the project, this paper offers a general overview of the Guide and its substantive content.