[go: up one dir, main page]
IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/fpr/ifprid/887.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Determinant of smallholder farmer labor allocation decisions in Uganda:

Author

Listed:
  • Bagamba, Fred
  • Burger, Kees
  • Kuyvenhoven, Arie
Abstract
"Although there is growing evidence of the increasing role of nonfarm activities in rural livelihoods, there is still relatively little empirical evidence regarding the factors that influence smallholder farmers to diversify into nonfarm activities. This study analyses the factors that influence household labor allocation decisions and demand for farm labor in Uganda. Data were collected from 660 households in three banana-based production zones with divergent production constraints and opportunities. The determinants of demand for hired labor were estimated with the Tobit model. Linear regression was used to estimate reduced-form equations for the time-allocation decisions of household members. Our findings show that household members respond positively to increases in wages, suggesting that they respond to economic incentives. Increased wage rates negatively affect the use of hired labor, but household size has no effect on the use of hired labor, indicating that the economic rationing of labor hiring has more to do with the market wage than family size or composition. Education and road access have positive effects on the amount of time allocated to off-farm activities. Access to off-farm opportunities, however, takes away the most productive labor from farm production. These findings suggest that investment in road infrastructure and education suited to smallholder production needs could help alleviate bottlenecks in labor markets and improve resource allocation between farm and nonfarm sectors." from authors' abstract

Suggested Citation

  • Bagamba, Fred & Burger, Kees & Kuyvenhoven, Arie, 2009. "Determinant of smallholder farmer labor allocation decisions in Uganda:," IFPRI discussion papers 887, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:fpr:ifprid:887
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ifpri.org/cdmref/p15738coll2/id/18259/filename/18260.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Escobal, Javier, 2001. "The Determinants of Nonfarm Income Diversification in Rural Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 497-508, March.
    2. Reardon, Thomas, 1997. "Using evidence of household income diversification to inform study of the rural nonfarm labor market in Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 25(5), pages 735-747, May.
    3. Ahn, Choong Yong & Singh, Inderjit & Squire, Lyn, 1981. "A Model of an Agricultural Household in a Multi-Crop Economy: The Case of Korea," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 63(4), pages 520-525, November.
    4. Udry, Christopher & Hoddinott, John & Alderman, Harold & Haddad, Lawrence, 1995. "Gender differentials in farm productivity: implications for household efficiency and agricultural policy," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 20(5), pages 407-423, October.
    5. Hanan G. Jacoby, 1993. "Shadow Wages and Peasant Family Labour Supply: An Econometric Application to the Peruvian Sierra," The Review of Economic Studies, Review of Economic Studies Ltd, vol. 60(4), pages 903-921.
    6. Pender, John & Nkonya, Ephraim & Jagger, Pamela & Sserunkuuma, Dick & Ssali, Henry, 2004. "Strategies to increase agricultural productivity and reduce land degradation: evidence from Uganda," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 31(2-3), pages 181-195, December.
    7. Newman, Constance & Canagarajah, Sudharshan, 2000. "Gender, poverty, and nonfarm employment in Ghana and Uganda," Policy Research Working Paper Series 2367, The World Bank.
    8. Reardon, Thomas & Berdegue, Julio & Escobar, German, 2001. "Rural Nonfarm Employment and Incomes in Latin America: Overview and Policy Implications," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 29(3), pages 395-409, March.
    9. Matshe, Innocent & Young, Trevor, 2004. "Off-farm labour allocation decisions in small-scale rural households in Zimbabwe," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 30(3), pages 175-186, May.
    10. James Tobin, 1956. "Estimation of Relationships for Limited Dependent Variables," Cowles Foundation Discussion Papers 3R, Cowles Foundation for Research in Economics, Yale University.
    11. Abdulai, Awudu & Regmi, Punya Prasad, 2000. "Estimating labor supply of farm households under nonseparability: empirical evidence from Nepal," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 309-320, April.
    12. Awudu Abdulai & Christopher L. Delgado, 1999. "Determinants of Nonfarm Earnings of Farm-Based Husbands and Wives in Northern Ghana," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 81(1), pages 117-130.
    13. Emmanuel Skoufias, 1994. "Using Shadow Wages to Estimate Labor Supply of Agricultural Households," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 76(2), pages 215-227.
    14. Frank Ellis & H Ade Freeman, 2004. "Rural Livelihoods and Poverty Reduction Strategies in Four African Countries," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 40(4), pages 1-30.
    15. Barnum, Howard N. & Squire, Lyn, 1979. "An econometric application of the theory of the farm-household," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 6(1), pages 79-102, February.
    16. Benjamin, Dwayne, 1992. "Household Composition, Labor Markets, and Labor Demand: Testing for Separation in Agricultural Household Models," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 60(2), pages 287-322, March.
    17. Barrett, C. B. & Reardon, T. & Webb, P., 2001. "Nonfarm income diversification and household livelihood strategies in rural Africa: concepts, dynamics, and policy implications," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(4), pages 315-331, August.
    18. Blundell, Richard & Meghir, Costas, 1987. "Bivariate alternatives to the Tobit model," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 34(1-2), pages 179-200.
    19. J. Taylor & Irma Adelman, 2003. "Agricultural Household Models: Genesis, Evolution, and Extensions," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 33-58, January.
    20. Gronau, Reuben, 1973. "The Intrafamily Allocation of Time: The Value of the Housewives' Time," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 63(4), pages 634-651, September.
    21. Mark R. Rosenzweig, 1980. "Neoclassical Theory and the Optimizing Peasant: An Econometric Analysis of Market Family Labor Supply in a Developing Country," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 94(1), pages 31-55.
    22. Lopez, Ramon E., 1984. "Estimating labor supply and production decisions of self-employed farm producers," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(1), pages 61-82.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Sulser, T. B., 2009. "Green and blue water accounting in the Limpopo and Nile basins: implications for food and agricultural policy," IWMI Working Papers H042476, International Water Management Institute.
    2. Lincoln Addison & Matthew Schnurr, 2016. "Growing burdens? Disease-resistant genetically modified bananas and the potential gendered implications for labor in Uganda," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 967-978, December.
    3. Abdul-Hakim, Roslan & Hadijah Che-Mat, Siti, 2011. "Determinants of Farmer’s Participation in Off-Farm Employment: A Case Study in Kedah Darul Aman, Malaysia," Asian Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development, Asian Economic and Social Society (AESS), vol. 1(04), pages 1-12, December.
    4. Enoch M. Kikulwe & Joseph Lule Kyanjo & Edward Kato & Reuben T. Ssali & Rockefeller Erima & Samuel Mpiira & Walter Ocimati & William Tinzaara & Jerome Kubiriba & Elisabetta Gotor & Dietmar Stoian & El, 2019. "Management of Banana Xanthomonas Wilt: Evidence from Impact of Adoption of Cultural Control Practices in Uganda," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-18, May.
    5. Nalunga, Asha & Mugisha, Johnny & Walekhwa, Peter & Smith, Jo, 2019. "The dynamics of Household labor allocation to biogas production, farm and non-farm activities in central Uganda," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 461-467.
    6. Amsalu Bedemo & Kindie Getnet & Belay Kassa, 2013. "Determinants of Household Demand for and Supply of Farm Labour in Rural Ethiopia," Australian Journal of Labour Economics (AJLE), Bankwest Curtin Economics Centre (BCEC), Curtin Business School, vol. 16(3), pages 351-367.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Almeida, Alexandre N. & Bravo-Ureta, Boris E., 2019. "Agricultural productivity, shadow wages and off-farm labor decisions in Nicaragua," Economic Systems, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 99-110.
    2. Pascual, Unai & Barbier, Edward B., 2005. "On- And Off-Farm Labor Decisions By Slash-And-Burn Farmers In Yucatan (Mexico)," Environmental Economy and Policy Research Discussion Papers 31926, University of Cambridge, Department of Land Economy.
    3. Abdulai, Awudu & Regmi, Punya Prasad, 2000. "Estimating labor supply of farm households under nonseparability: empirical evidence from Nepal," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 22(3), pages 309-320, April.
    4. Laszlo, Sonia, 2008. "Education, Labor Supply, and Market Development in Rural Peru," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(11), pages 2421-2439, November.
    5. Linde-Rahr, Martin, 2001. "Rural Shadow Wages, Labour Supply And Agricultural Production Under Imperfect Markets: Empirical Evidence From Viet Nam," 2001 Annual meeting, August 5-8, Chicago, IL 20487, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    6. Taruvinga, Amon & Mushunje, Abbyssinia, 2012. "Buffer zone income dynamics for the sub-district producer community: Implications for rural off-farm income, income inequality and the development of household agriculture," 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil 126377, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Bhaumik, Sumon K. & Dimova, Ralitza & Nugent, Jeffrey B., 2006. "Pulls, Pushes and Entitlement Failures in Labor Markets: Does the State of Development Matter?," IZA Discussion Papers 2258, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Alex Almeida & Boris Bravo-Ureta, 2011. "Agricultural Productivity And Off-Farm Labor Decisions By Heads And Spouses In Nicaragua: A Semiparametric Analysis Using Panel Data," ERSA conference papers ersa11p508, European Regional Science Association.
    9. Merfeld, Joshua D., 2020. "Smallholders, Market Failures, and Agricultural Production: Evidence from India," IZA Discussion Papers 13682, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    10. Wassie Berhanu & David Colman & Bichaka Fayissa, 2007. "Diversification and livelihood sustainability in a semi-arid environment: A case study from southern Ethiopia," Journal of Development Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(5), pages 871-889.
    11. Chang, Yang-Ming & Huang, Biing-Wen & Chen, Yun-Ju, 2012. "Labor supply, income, and welfare of the farm household," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(3), pages 427-437.
    12. Wang, Xiaobing & Herzfeld, Thomas & Glauben, Thomas, 2007. "Labor allocation in transition: Evidence from Chinese rural households," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(3), pages 287-308.
    13. Nguyen, Huy, 2014. "The effect of land fragmentation on labor allocation and the economic diversity of farm households: The case of Vietnam," MPRA Paper 57521, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    14. Marwan Benali & Bernhard Brümmer & Victor Afari‐Sefa, 2018. "Smallholder participation in vegetable exports and age‐disaggregated labor allocation in Northern Tanzania," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 49(5), pages 549-562, September.
    15. repec:hal:journl:dumas-00802135 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Ahituv, Avner & Kimhi, Ayal, 2002. "Off-farm work and capital accumulation decisions of farmers over the life-cycle: the role of heterogeneity and state dependence," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 329-353, August.
    17. Touhami Abdelkhalek & Fouzia Ejjanoui, 2015. "Tests De Séparabilité dans les Decisioins des Menages Agricoles: Cas du Maroc," Working Papers 955, Economic Research Forum, revised Oct 2015.
    18. Daniel LaFave & Duncan Thomas, 2016. "Farms, Families, and Markets: New Evidence on Completeness of Markets in Agricultural Settings," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 84, pages 1917-1960, September.
    19. Henning, Christian H.C.A. & Henningsen, Arne, 2005. "Modeling Price Response of Farm Households Under Imperfect Labor Markets: A Farm Household Approach to Family Farms in Poland," 94th Seminar, April 9-10, 2005, Ashford, UK 24431, European Association of Agricultural Economists.
    20. J. Taylor & Irma Adelman, 2003. "Agricultural Household Models: Genesis, Evolution, and Extensions," Review of Economics of the Household, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 33-58, January.
    21. Rakhe Balachandran & Jerrod Penn & Maria Bampasidou, 2023. "Understanding the variation in estimates of off‐farm labour supply elasticities: A meta‐analysis," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 74(1), pages 116-134, February.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Smallholder farmers; Labor demand; Non-farm employment; Land management;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:fpr:ifprid:887. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: the person in charge (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/ifprius.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.