Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the efficiency of vegetable farmers within the tree-crop based rainforest agro-ecological zone in Southwest region of Cameroon. Design/methodology/approach The non-parametric data envelopment analysis method was used to evaluate technical and scale efficiencies while the Tobit model was used to identify factors affecting efficiency of vegetable production. Findings An econometric analysis result indicates that family size, education and extension service have significant impact on both technical and scale efficiencies, whereas credit service has significant impact on scale efficiency. Practical implications Future agricultural policies could include measures to improve the capacity of farmers to efficiently use existing resources. Social implications The study highlighted that encouraging more people to engage in farm labor and facilitating smallholder access to microcredit could render vegetable farmers more efficient. Originality/value In Cameroon, only a few studies have been conducted on technical efficiency. These encompass mainly cash and food crops. To the best of our knowledge, no single study has measured technical efficiency of vegetable farmers in forest-based farming of Cameroon.

This paper analyzes the impacts of the Covid‐19 pandemic on employment in Cameroon. Using data collected from a rapid survey led by the National Institute of Statistics, on a sample of 1,310 respondents from April to May 2020. These data show that a large proportion of workers suffered a wage cut (60.93%) and temporary job suspension (31.6%), and the smallest proportion suffered job loss (7.47%). The results of the logistic regression show that lower frequency of outgoings to work, difficulties in accessing transport services and the loss of customer confidence have a strong negative impact on both wage cuts and temporary suspensions of work. The closure (total or partial) of activities has increasingly enhanced job loss. Further, the log of odds show that workers in private firms are more affected than their peers in public firms, and the middle‐aged are the most affected group. So, it is recommended to revamp the old methods of activity into digital innovation that enables less physical touch and find an appropriate way to support those who have lost their jobs during this Covid‐19 pandemic, particularly in the private sector.

The main objectives of this work are two‐fold: we seek first to specify the relationship between agricultural productivity and non‐agricultural employment and second to assess the effect of productivity growth on the employment of the off‐farm sector in the long run. The econometric results of our panel vector autoregressive depict a causal relationship with single direction from agricultural productivity to non‐agricultural employment. Between productivity and inequalities, causality seems to function only from productivity to inequalities. This explains the fact that productivity growth generates significant inequalities in the distribution of income, which is necessary to enhancing investments in the agricultural sector. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

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