Land Productivity and Plot Size
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World Bank, Washington, DC
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This paper revisits the decades-old
puzzle of the inverse plot-size productivity relationship,
which states that land productivity decreases as plot size
increases. Existing empirical studies on the inverse
plot-size productivity relationship define land productivity
or yields as self-reported production divided by plot size.
This paper considers an alternative approach to estimating
yields based on crop cuts. The crop-cut method entails
measuring and harvesting randomly selected subplots by
trained technicians, and is recommended by the Food and
Agriculture Organization for the accurate measurement of
crop production. Using data representative of rural
Ethiopia, the analysis indicates that the inverse
relationship is strong when based on self-reported
production, but disappears when based on crop-cut estimates.
The inference from these findings is that the inverse
relationship is an artifact of systematic overreporting of
production by farmers on small plots, and underreporting on
larger plots. The paper also discusses how rejecting the
inverse plot-size productivity relationship has significant
implications for the inverse farm-size productivity relationship.
Palabras clave
LAND USE, AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTIVITY, PLOT SIZE, CROP YIELDS