Too Small to Be Beautiful?: The Farm Size and Productivity Relationship in Bangladesh

Abstract

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the authors. They do not necessarily represent the views of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank and its affiliated organizations, or those of the Executive Directors of the World Bank or the governments they represent.

Increasing farm size to improve energy use efficiency and sustainability in maize production

“…By contrast, the farmers in larger farms often prefer to invest in mechanization, as they see benefits from greater labor productivity rather than increasing agricultural inputs (Wang et al, 2017). Additionally, agricultural machinery can lead to a decline in the use of agricultural inputs (Gautam & Ahmed, 2019). In small‐sized farms, agricultural machines move frequently between fragmented fields, resulting in higher fuel consumption per unit area (Wang et al, 2017).…”

“…However, the age, education background, and annual income per capita of farm holders showed no significant relationships with maize yield in Northeast China (Figure S3). Considering the sustained high yield, regardless of farm size, householder's farming experience, income, and educational attainment were not limiting the yield bottleneck, while technical innovation and new varieties might be key factors in this respect (Gautam & Ahmed, 2019; Meng et al, 2020).…”

Technical Efficiency of Farms in Poland According to Their Sizes and Types

“…Rising transaction costs will increasingly affect the allocation efficiency and deployment of production resources. Gautam and Ahmed (2019) studying the technical efficiency of agricultural holdings in Bangladesh in 2000-2008 came to similar conclusions. In this country, smaller farms had higher technical efficiency compared to larger farms.…”

Are small farms more performant than larger ones in developing countries?

“…As shown for many countries in Asia, increasing real agricultural wages over the course of those past two decades, along with absorptions of labor into nonagricultural sectors, induced substitution of labor by machine, mainly through machine rental or service providers [for the Philippines ( 75 , 76 ), Indonesia ( 77 ), Vietnam ( 37 , 78 ), China ( 79 ), India ( 28 ), and Bangladesh ( 38 )]. As a result, the productivity advantage of smaller farms (IR) diminished and, in some cases, even reversed, increasing operational farm size among farmers through land rental markets as well.…”

“…If small farms truly outperform larger ones, then there would be no clear trade-off between equity and efficiency in the design and implementation of development policies: Supporting poorer farmers would also enhance aggregate productivity (35). However, recent literature points to weakening of this evidence in some developing countries (28,(36)(37)(38)(39) or simply records that as the size of farms increases, so does the productivity (40,41). As a result, the direction of the farm size-performance relationship in developing countries cannot be inherently assumed (8,42,43).…”