The political economy of contract farming in Zimbabwe’s tobacco sector

Contract farming (CF) has become a key mode of organizing agricultural production in many rural areas of the global south with direct consequences for work and livelihood conditions. CF is a system that involves a substantial restructuring and reorganization of production and labor relations, outsourcing labor costs, production costs, and risks to contract farmers. This paper builds upon and extends the labor regimes framework. It conceptualizes CF as a distinct labor regime characterized by flexibility, fragmentation, and the blurring of capital-labor boundaries. The paper integrates insights from agrarian political economy and global production network analysis to examine how mechanisms of control—contractual discipline, indebtedness, and managerial control—structure the production process. It also explores how these mechanisms interact with the constrained agency of contract farmers.