IFAD RESEARCH SERIES 34 - Farm size and productivity: lessons from recent literature

Douglas Gollin ()

No 281567, IFAD Research Series from International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)

Abstract: This paper considers the relationship between farm size and productivity patterns across countries and within countries. Across countries, there is a weak but positive relationship between farm size and yield. A much stronger positive relationship holds for agricultural output per unit of labour, which is closely correlated with farm size across countries. The inverse farm size-productivity relationship holds true within countries. However, even within countries, there is typically a strong positive relationship between farm size and labour productivity. Considering that hundreds of millions of poor people will remain in smallholder agriculture for decades to come, policy-makers need to consider whether current strategies offer a particularly valuable way to generate agricultural development.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Farm Management; Food Security and Poverty; Land Economics/Use (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 40
Date: 2019-01-23
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:unadrs:281567

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.281567

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