Analysis of a household survey from the Philippines shows that the behavior of sharecroppers with a kinship relationship with their landlord is not affected by the terms of the contract, while the ,behavior of the other sharecroppers responds to the contract terms. We characterized the meaning of this family tie through a survey of opinion conducted among tenants. It shows that kin landlords indeed help or are expected to help more frequently in case of emergency than the other landlords, and they do so with a wider range of instruments, providing the incentive for cooperative behavior in sharecropping contracts among kin.