LABOR-RETURN ORIENTATION AND EXTENSIVE FARMING AMONG SMALLHOLDERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: EVIDENCE FROM TANZANIA

LI PENGFEI; Zheng Tianlu; QI YANCHEN; Chen Weixuan; Wenfei Li

Todos os Trabalhos

Trabalho

DOI

10.29327/9786527226680.1444714

Título do Trabalho

LABOR-RETURN ORIENTATION AND EXTENSIVE FARMING AMONG SMALLHOLDERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: EVIDENCE FROM TANZANIA

Autores

LI PENGFEI
Zheng Tianlu
QI YANCHEN
Chen Weixuan
Wenfei Li

Modalidade

IRSA - Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (01/10/2025 a 20/01/2026)

Área temática

IRSA 05 - Family Farming in Comparative Perspective

Data de Publicação

06/08/2026

País da Publicação

Brasil

Idioma da Publicação

pt-BR

Página do Trabalho

https://www.even3.com.br/anais/sober-irsa2026/1444714-labor-return-orientation-and-extensive-farming-among-smallholders-in-sub-saharan-africa--evidence-from-tanzania

ISBN

978-65-272-2668-0

Palavras-Chave

smallholder farming, labor productivity, land productivity, Sub-Saharan Africa

Resumo

Abstract Food production growth in Sub-Saharan Africa has long relied more on cropland expansion than on yield improvement. Yet as land pressure rises, many smallholders still do not systematically adopt labor-intensive yield-enhancing technologies, instead following an “extensive” pathway of cultivating more land with low yields. This paper advances a labor-return–oriented explanation. When the marginal cost of land is relatively non-salient while peak-season labor and liquidity constitute binding constraints, feasible objectives may collapse from maximizing total returns to prioritizing returns to the scarcest factor—labor. Smallholders thus raise the land–labor ratio to economize on labor, even at the cost of declining land productivity. Over time, this behavioral logic disciplines production choices and generates path dependence. Using an unbalanced panel from Tanzania’s National Panel Survey (NPS) Waves 1–5, we estimate models with household fixed effects and year fixed effects. Results reveal a stable and significant labor–land productivity trade-off: a 1% increase in cultivated area is associated with about a 0.216% increase in labor productivity and a 0.386% decrease in land productivity, implying that labor input per unit of land falls markedly with expansion (labor-intensity elasticity ˜ -0.60). Specifications without household fixed effects yield consistent directions. We further conduct a within-household test using the most recent plot-level data. After computing marginal value products from a plot production function, we find that the dispersion of the marginal value product of labor (MVPL) across plots within the same household is significantly lower than that of the marginal value product of land (MVPA), suggesting that households tend to “equalize” labor returns rather than land returns across plots—consistent with and complementary to the main panel evidence.

Título do Evento: 16th World Congress of Rural Sociology and 64th Congress of the Brazilian Society of Rural Economics, Management and Sociology
Cidade do Evento: Porto Alegre
Título dos Anais do Evento: Anais do 64º Congresso da SOBER e XVI Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (IRSA)
Nome da Editora: Even3
Meio de Divulgação: Meio Digital
DOI

Como citar

PENGFEI, LI et al.. LABOR-RETURN ORIENTATION AND EXTENSIVE FARMING AMONG SMALLHOLDERS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA: EVIDENCE FROM TANZANIA.. In: Anais do 64º Congresso da SOBER e XVI Congresso Mundial de Sociologia Rural (IRSA). Anais...Porto Alegre(RS) UFRGS, 2026. Disponível em: https//www.even3.com.br/anais/sober-irsa2026/1444714-LABOR-RETURN-ORIENTATION-AND-EXTENSIVE-FARMING-AMONG-SMALLHOLDERS-IN-SUB-SAHARAN-AFRICA--EVIDENCE-FROM-TANZANIA. Acesso em: 24/09/2026