Long-Term Determinants of Agricultural Output in Smallholder Farmers in Rwanda

Type Conference Paper - 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Title Long-Term Determinants of Agricultural Output in Smallholder Farmers in Rwanda
Author(s)
Publication (Day/Month/Year) 2014
URL https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea14/169867.html
Abstract
This paper analyses the household level drivers of agricultural output in Nyabihu District, a
densely populated area of rural Rwanda, over the past 26 years. We use a unique two-wave panel
dataset spanning a 26-year period, linking the split-off households in 2012 to the original
households in 1986. The findings identify the relative importance of labor, land, and capital for
output growth in the study area. Over the studied period, the agricultural output has been
characterized by decreasing elasticities of land and capital; whereas the elasticity of labor has
grown three-fold. The findings also suggest a substantial impact of mobile phone technology
adoption by farm households. Using propensity score matching, we find that agricultural output
for mobile phone users is at least 38 percent higher than non-users.

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