Potato Contract Farming Reduces Risk and Improved Farmers Livelihood Security in District Kannauj, U.P.

The agricultural products prices are highly volatile as well as vulnerable vagaries of nature. There is considerable time lag between the time of initial spending and getting of receipts from the final farm produce. Contract farming is increasingly becoming an important avenue for the agro processing firms in the country to procure raw materials. The state government of Uttar Pradesh is assiduously wooding the corporate sector to undertake contract farming in the state in order to diversify the cropping pattern away from paddy-wheat rotation. Contract farming in several crops such as potatoes, tomatoes, chillies, groundnut, basmati paddy, medicinal plant andherbs, wheat and fruits etc are taking under taken in state by many companies such Frito-Lay (Pepsi), Rallis, Dabur, Wimco etc.