The contrasting effects of farm size on farm incomes and food production

Abstract

Small-scale farming provides both food and livelihoods for the vast majority of the global poor. Thus, increasing and stabilizing farm incomes and food production in developing countries is fundamental to reducing global poverty. Policies for rural development such as improved access to non-agricultural incomes or land titling may benefit farmers, but they may also lead to farm consolidation with unintended consequences for aggregate food supply. Using a large panel dataset of rural households in Uganda, we parse apart how farm size affects the level and riskiness of agricultural incomes as well as of local food supply. Our findings indicate that while output per unit of land does decline with increasing farm size as suggested by previous literature, agricultural incomes increase with farm size. We show further that while the variance of agricultural incomes declines with increasing farm size, the variance of local food production increases with farm size. These results suggest that farmers benefit from larger farms, earning higher and more stable incomes while consumers suffer from lower and more volatile food supply.

Determinants of Maize Production Income in Western Uganda

“…Additionally, Xaba and Masuku (2013) reported that increasing the size of farms under vegetable production would result in an increase in vegetable profitability by 21.5%; this further confirms the positive influence of farm size on farm income. Similar findings were also reported by Noack and Larsen (2019). However, Das & Ganesh-Kumar (2017) reported a U-shaped association between farm size and farm income, a situation which implies that farm size increases farm income up to a certain level then starts to reduce it.…”

“…When farmers use their input appropriately, they would earn more income from large portions of land due to the benefits that accrue from the economies of scale. A recent study by Noack and Larsen (2019) aimed at determining the effects of farm size on agricultural income in Uganda found out that agricultural income increases with an increase in farm size. Similar findings were also reported by Doti (2017).…”

An Investigation of the Factors That Motivated Illegal Settlements in the Mau Forest, Kenya

“…This implies that the landless and those with small land sizes earn less as they have no or little land to farm on, and others have to completely depend on casual labor. These findings are supported by those of [22] who found out that income from agriculture is higher when the size of land is big as compared to when the land size is small. Figure 4 shows the relationship between income bracket and size of land.…”

Linking farm production diversity to household dietary diversity controlling market access and agricultural technology usage: evidence from Noakhali district, Bangladesh

“…Increased farm size may increase the chances of producing more crops, resulting in increased income and household consumption. According to one study, larger farms increase the variability of local food production, and farmers benefit from having larger farms because they generate more consistent income ( Noack and Larsen, 2019 ). The other socioeconomic variables (HH head literacy and family) did not show a consistent significant influence on HDDS.…”