Promoting an Ethical Business Environment through Sustainable Procurement Practices in Agricultural Value Chains

Abstract

Purpose: Ethical business environments have become a global imperative, and this is particularly overemphasised in agricultural value chains that are sustained by contract farming initiatives. The main aims of this study are to determine the reasons that push farmers into indulging in side marketing in contract farming initiatives and how they execute that malpractice. Research design, data and methodology: Semi-structured interviews were conducted on tobacco farmers who had some history of side marketing. The data collection process saturated at 20 respondents who were purposively and conveniently selected. The data was thematically analysed. Results: The results indicated that the farmers execute side marketing through liquidating inputs using the grey market and outputs through the use of unscrupulous merchants. The reasons for side marketing were to finance their living expenses and recover the revenue they believe was cheated out of them by the contracting merchants through overpriced inputs and underpriced produce. Conclusions: The study recommends tobacco merchants to ethically deal with the farmers in order to reduce the indulgence in side marketing practice. Tobacco merchants must also deploy their agricultural extension officers to monitor the activities of contracted farmers as an operational way of minimising the cases of side marketing.