Should African Rural Development Strategies Depend on Smallholder Farms? An Exploration of the Inverse Productivity Hypothesis
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World Bank, Washington, DC
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In Africa, most development strategies
include efforts to improve the productivity of staple crops
grown on smallholder farms. An underlying premise is that
small farms are productive in the African context and that
smallholders do not forgo economies of scale -- a premise
supported by the often observed phenomenon that staple
cereal yields decline as the scale of production increases.
This paper explores a research design conundrum that
encourages researchers who study the relationship between
productivity and scale to use surveys with a narrow
geographic reach, when policy would be better served with
studies based on wide and heterogeneous settings. Using a
model of endogenous technology choice, the authors explore
the relationship between maize yields and scale using
alternative data. Since rich descriptions of the decision
environments that farmers face are needed to identify the
applied technologies that generate the data, improvements in
the location specificity of the data should reduce the
likelihood of identification errors and biased estimates.
However, the analysis finds that the inverse productivity
hypothesis holds up well across a broad platform of data,
despite obvious shortcomings with some components. It also
finds surprising consistency in the estimated scale elasticities.
Palabras clave
ACCOUNTING, AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS, AGRICULTURAL GROWTH, AGRICULTURAL LABOR, AGRICULTURAL POLICIES, AGRICULTURAL PRACTICE, AGRICULTURAL PRICES, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY, AGRICULTURAL SECTORS, ANIMALS, AVERAGE YIELDS, CEREAL YIELDS, CGIAR, CHEMICAL FERTILIZER, CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS, CLIMATE, CLIMATIC CONDITIONS, COMMERCIAL AGRICULTURE, COMMERCIAL FARMING, CROP, CROP PRODUCTION, CROP SEASONS, CROPS, CULTIVATED LAND, DECISION MAKING, DEFORESTATION, DEVELOPMENT AGENCIES, DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS, DEVELOPMENT POLICY, DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIES, DRIVERS, ECONOMIC EFFICIENCY, ECONOMIC GROWTH, ECONOMIES OF SCALE, ELASTICITY, FAMILY FARMS, FAMILY LABOR, FAO, FARM, FARM INCOME, FARM INCOMES, FARM PRODUCTIVITY, FARM PROFITABILITY, FARM SIZE, FARM YIELDS, FARMER, FARMERS, FARMING, FARMING HOUSEHOLDS, FARMING METHODS, FARMING SYSTEMS, FARMS, FEED, FERTILIZER, FERTILIZER USE, FOOD POLICY, FOOD PRICE VOLATILITY, FOOD PRICES, FOOD SECURITY, FREE MARKETS, GLOBAL FOOD, GLOBAL FOOD PRICES, GRAIN, GRAINS, GREEN REVOLUTION, GROWING SEASON, GROWTH THEORY, HERBICIDES, HUMAN CAPITAL, HUNGER, HYBRID SEED, HYBRID SEEDS, HYBRIDS, IFPRI, INTERCROPPING, INTERNATIONAL FOOD POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE, LABOR FORCE, LABOR MARKET, LABOR MARKETS, LIVELIHOODS, LIVING STANDARDS, MAIZE, MAIZE FARMERS, MAIZE PRODUCTION, MAIZE YIELDS, MOTIVATION, NATURAL ENDOWMENTS, OPTIMIZATION, ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE, OUTPUTS, PESTICIDE, PLANTING, POLITICAL ECONOMY, POLITICAL INSTITUTIONS, PRICE VOLATILITY, PRODUCE, PRODUCTION FUNCTION, PRODUCTION FUNCTIONS, PRODUCTION INCREASES, RETURNS TO SCALE, RICE, RICE YIELDS, RURAL DEVELOPMENT, RURAL LABOR, SAFETY, SAFETY NETS, SCALE EFFECTS, SHADOW PRICES, SMALL FARMERS, SMALL-SCALE FARMERS, SMALLHOLDER AGRICULTURE, SOIL CHARACTERISTICS, SOIL FERTILITY, SOILS, STATISTICAL ANALYSIS, SUBSISTENCE CROPS, SURPLUS LABOR, TROPICAL AGRICULTURE, WEALTH, WHEAT