STAARS-001 Non-farm Employment, Agricultural Intensification and Productivity Change: Empirical Findings from Uganda

Abstract

This paper uses panel data from the Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) for Uganda to assess the farm-level effects of non-farm employment on agricultural intensification and productivity change. A sample selection model is used to account for both unobserved heterogeneity and potential simultaneity between agricultural production and non-farm income. Results show that non-farm employment can have differential impacts on farm technology intensity and productivity. Non-farm income is found to have a positive impact on farm hired labor and improved seed intensity; a negative effect on on-farm family labor use; and no significant impact on fertilizer, soil water management, and joint use of farm technologies. The econometric evidence also indicates that agricultural productivity declines as non-farm income increases. Taken together, our findings reveal important tradeoffs between non-farm employment and income and farm productivity growth under smallholder agriculture. The results indicated that targeted policies are required to reduce these potential tradeoffs between non-farm employment and agricultural intensification and productivity change.

Members

Project leader: Mulubrhan Amare

Project researchers:

Journal publication

Authors	Co-Authors	Title of paper	Title of Economic Review	Bibliographic references
Mulubrhan Amare	Bekele Shiferaw	Nonfarm employment, agricultural intensification, and productivity change: empirical findings from Uganda	Agricultural Economics	Volume 48, November 2017, pages 59–72

Working Papers

No working papers.

Policy Briefs

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Final report

	Title	Modified	Size	Comments	Recommendations
	Non-farm Employment, Agricultural Intensification and Productivity Change: Empirical Findings from Uganda	2018-02-15	2.09MB	0	0

Proposal

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