This paper systematically investigates the role of the quality of rural employment on
agricultural production efficiency in developing countries, taking Ethiopia and Tanzania as
cases. We use data of the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on
Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) collected in 2011. In the analysis, an output-oriented distance
function approach that accounts for different technological, demographic, socio-economic,
institutional and quality of rural employment indicators is applied. The findings of the
analysis support the idea that the quality of rural employment could be seen as an effective
element of rural development policies and strategies in sub-Saharan Africa. Better integration
of quality rural employment aspects (creation of jobs, improving quality of jobs, promoting
public employment programs etc.) contribute to improve technical efficiency in agricultural
production.