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Keywords: contract farming, agribusiness, Philippines, Southeast Asia, asparagus, hybrid maizeContract farming is a widespread and important tool for organising agricultural production in line with corporate strategies and market demands. This book analyses how Philippine farmers and transnational agribusiness make contract farming work in two production schemes in Mindanao: the export-oriented production of high-value asparagus and the risky production of hybrid maize seed. The study encompasses a wide range of issues, ranging from business strategies, customised production and marketing processes, and transfer of technologies and skills throughout agrifood production. The book challenges straightforward managerial perspectives by its focus on the continuous drawing of boundaries between firm, farm and society. Special attention is given to the way company and contract farmers manage the social attributes of their relationship and the study raises the question what happens if institutional perceptions are incommensurable. Furthermore, this study integrates organisational concerns and technological puzzles through ethnographic study of financial and administrative transactions and conditions for profit sharing, co-ordination of farm work and divergent management styles, and the impact of risk and uncertainty on trust and organisational coherence. The analysis bridges between literatures of agrarian sociology, technology and development studies, management studies, and agronomy. The book is a valuable resource for practitioners and policy-makers in forming a view of possible futures within the context of agro-industrialisation and incorporation into global markets.

Keywords: contract farming, agribusiness, Philippines, Southeast Asia, asparagus, hybrid maizeContract farming is a widespread and important tool for organising agricultural production in line with corporate strategies and market demands. This book analyses how Philippine farmers and transnational agribusiness make contract farming work in two production schemes in Mindanao: the export-oriented production of high-value asparagus and the risky production of hybrid maize seed. The study encompasses a wide range of issues, ranging from business strategies, customised production and marketing processes, and transfer of technologies and skills throughout agrifood production. The book challenges straightforward managerial perspectives by its focus on the continuous drawing of boundaries between firm, farm and society. Special attention is given to the way company and contract farmers manage the social attributes of their relationship and the study raises the question what happens if institutional perceptions are incommensurable. Furthermore, this study integrates organisational concerns and technological puzzles through ethnographic study of financial and administrative transactions and conditions for profit sharing, co-ordination of farm work and divergent management styles, and the impact of risk and uncertainty on trust and organisational coherence. The analysis bridges between literatures of agrarian sociology, technology and development studies, management studies, and agronomy. The book is a valuable resource for practitioners and policy-makers in forming a view of possible futures within the context of agro-industrialisation and incorporation into global markets.