Understanding Grower Contracts

A contract is an agreement between two or more entities, usually between an agribusiness and a farmer or grower. The contract is the central repository for all terms and conditions of an agreement, including pricing and payment schedules. Negotiating a contract for products occurs at both the regional and corporate level. External growers or internally owned farms may have a contract with the product.

After an agribusiness determines whom to contract with for a product, both parties agree upon one or more contracts. The contracts contain information about the plot of land, also referred to as the block, on which the product is grown. For each growing period, associate a harvest with a block. The harvest identifies the product and growing period. Because a contract can span several growing periods, a block might have several harvests associated with it. Typically, the contract manager manages the harvests at the block level because most harvests for a block have similar characteristics such as price. A grower contract is a contract associated with a block and harvest.

A grower contract consists of these three components:

This table describes contract components:

Component	Description
Contract Header	Includes general information about the contract, clauses, payment schedules, and action dates. Provides many of the default field values to the block records that are associated with the contract. The system stores contract header information in the Contract Header table (F43C01).
Contract Block	Includes information about the grower and the parcel of land, and enables you to manage the corresponding harvests for a contract. Provides many of the default field values to the harvest records that are associated with the block. The system stores contract block information in the Contract Block table (F43C10).
Contract Harvest	Includes detailed information about the grower harvest, the product and quantity expected for a growing cycle, and so on. The system stores contract harvest information in the Contract Detail table (F43C11).

These three components form a hierarchy. The contract header is a parent to the contract block and the contract block is a parent to the contract harvest. The system passes many of the parent attributes on to its children so that the information from one level of the hierarchy becomes default information for another.

One component in the hierarchy depends on the existence of another component. You cannot add a contract block without a contract header, nor can you add a contract harvest without a contract block.

After you create the contract header, you can add one or more blocks to the contract. Similarly, after you create the contract block, you can add one or more harvest to the contract. After completing all three components of the contract, you can begin transacting against the contract.

Before the interested parties review and agree upon the terms of a contract, you can enter the contract into the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Grower Pricing and Payments system and assign draft status to it. You can create the contract header, block, and harvest with a minimal amount of information or you can create the contract header and later add the block and harvest. The interested parties review the contract and, if necessary, revise the agreement and then sign it. When the interested parties sign the agreement or contract, you change the draft status to active status. Throughout the life cycle of the contract, you can closely monitor the details of the contract, including receipts and payments for the contracted items.