The Farmer and Her Husband: Legal innovations for women in contract farming

The policy brief argues that women are frequently excluded from contract farming agreements despite providing the majority of the labor, and that contracted crops often displace the subsistence crops women grow for household nutrition. To remedy this, the authors propose incorporating legal protections into contracts and national legislation, drawing on principles from consumer protection, franchising, and mortgage laws. Key recommendations include requiring spousal consent for contract validity, ensuring informed consent through plain-language summaries, and conferring third-party rights to women who perform substantial work but are not signatories to the contract.

• Women are systematically excluded from signing contract farming agreements despite performing a significant portion of the agricultural labor. For example, in a study of 39 agribusiness investments in Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, women represented only 1.5 per cent of out-growers.
• Contract farming often leads to the displacement of subsistence crops, which are primarily grown by women to ensure household food and nutrition security. Examples include the displacement of millet by tobacco in East Africa and sorghum by rice.
• The lack of contractual inclusion disempowers female farmers, leaving them with no control over the income generated by the contract, which men may spend on individual rather than family needs.
• The document proposes that contract farming laws should require the active consent of a spouse for a contract to be valid, particularly if the spouse performs substantial work or is affected by the agreement.
• To ensure informed consent, the authors suggest requiring contracts to include a conspicuous 'IMPORTANT NOTICE' and a one-page 'summary of key terms' covering price, delivery dates, and input costs.
• The brief suggests a legal mechanism to confer benefits on 'Third Party Spouses'—women who are not signatories but perform significant work or grow subsistence food—allowing them to receive payments and enforce the contract directly.
• Additional complementary legal measures to improve fairness include 'cooling off periods' for cancellation, the voiding of 'unfair contract terms', and mandatory disclosure of the buyer's financial situation.

APA

Brewin, S., & Murphy, S. (2019). The Farmer and Her Husband: Legal innovations for women in contract farming. International Institute for Sustainable Development. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/women-contract-farming-policy-brief-en.pdf

Chicago

Brewin, Sarah, and Sophia Murphy. The Farmer and Her Husband: Legal innovations for women in contract farming. International Institute for Sustainable Development, 2019. https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/women-contract-farming-policy-brief-en.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Brewin |first1=Sarah |last2=Murphy |first2=Sophia |title=The Farmer and Her Husband: Legal innovations for women in contract farming |publisher=International Institute for Sustainable Development |date=1 February 2019 |url=https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/women-contract-farming-policy-brief-en.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{brewin2019farmer, author = {Brewin, Sarah and Murphy, Sophia}, title = {{The Farmer and Her Husband: Legal innovations for women in contract farming}}, institution = {International Institute for Sustainable Development}, year = {2019}, month = feb, url = {https://www.iisd.org/system/files/publications/women-contract-farming-policy-brief-en.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }