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Within the framework of potential efforts and strategies to employment generation for young people in Africa in general and Ethiopia in particular, the agricultural sector is increasingly considered as an important sector and a valuable means for poverty reduction, the promotion of economic development, and youth's economic independence. Renewed hope is placed on the sector to offer sustainable livelihood prospects for the rural youth. Yet, the success and sustainability of the sector require a proper understanding of how households allocate youth labor time in the sector and whether agricultural labor supply is responsive to economic incentives such as shadow wages. Using gender- and age-specific plot-level panel data, we systematically analyze the impacts of shadow wages of each household member on youth agricultural labor supply across types of farms. The results indicate that agricultural shadow wages matter for the youth's labor supply in the sector, but the impact differs for male and female youth. We also show that trends and patterns of youth labor supply vary across gender and whether they work on their own farm, and so do their labor returns. The results are consistent after controlling for individual heterogeneity and instrumenting for possible endogeneity. Taking into account the intensity of youth's actual involvement in the family farm, own farm or off-farm work instead of their stated intentions, the results challenge the presumption that youth are abandoning agriculture, at least in agricultural potential areas of Ethiopia. Instead, the frequent narrative of youth disengaging from agriculture may be a result of methodological flaws or data limitations. The findings suggest that it is necessary to invest in agricultural development to enhance labor productivity and employability of young people in agriculture.

The purpose of this study is to assess the impact of credit constraints on agricultural labour productivity as well as the impact of credit constraints and agricultural labour productivity on rural households' consumption in Ghana.

This study uses the Ghana Living Standard Survey round six (GLSS 6) as the main source of data, which happens to be one of the most comprehensive household datasets in Ghana. Quantitative estimation techniques (namely: Endogenous Switching Regression and Two Stage Least Squares) are used to address possible endogeneity and selection into credit markets.

First, large households are prone to credit constraints while age (experience) and compliance with extension advice reduce credit constraints. Second, the determinants of agricultural labour productivity for both constrained and unconstrained households are age, sex, farm equipment, herbicide and farm size. Third, household size, education and livestock rearing influence agricultural labour productivity of constrained households. Fourth, credit constraints, irrespective of how they are measured, impede agricultural labour productivity while access to credit fosters labour productivity. Lastly, credit constraints robustly reduce consumption while agricultural labour productivity strongly enhances rural households' consumption.

The first contribution is that, unlike most previous studies, we do not focus on the widely used measure of productivity – output per unit land, but on agriculture labour productivity in particular. Secondly, unlike most previous studies which examine the effect of credit constraints either on productivity alone or consumption alone, our study examines the impact of credit constraints on both. Thirdly, unlike the existing literature which uses one or two measures of credit constraints, we use a wide range of measures of credit constraints – seven different measures of credit constraints. Lastly, our empirical strategy solves at least two critical econometric problems – sample selection bias and endogeneity.

This study investigates whether, how and under what circumstances off-farm work induces farmland abandonment, which is of great importance for developing countries to cope with food security.

Exploiting large-scale panel data from the newly released Chinese Family Database, this study employs a two-way fixed effects model to empirically estimate the causal relationship between off-farm work and farmland abandonment.

In the context of large-scale labor migration in rural China, current off-farm work leads to an increase in the probability and area of farmland abandoned due to insufficient agricultural labor. However, off-farm work does not harm farm households in plain areas, or villages with land rental markets, abundant agricultural labor, and agricultural machinery, while it harms others. Moreover, farmers who work off-farm in the local area are less likely to abandon their farmland than those in other areas. Additionally, when the number of off-farm workers in a household exceeds two, the probability and area of farmland abandonment will miraculously decline, as the household will no longer live entirely on agriculture.

This study may fill the gap in clarifying the relationship between off-farm work and farmland abandonment, and identify scenarios where off-farm work may not cause farmland abandonment through multiple dimensions, providing insights into the governance of farmland abandonment during rural-urban transformation in developing countries.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of farmers’ agricultural production mode transformation, from the perspective of agricultural division of labor and cooperation, on their agricultural production efficiency including technical efficiency, pure technical efficiency and scale efficiency.

This paper analyzes the impact of the agricultural production mode’s transformation on farmers’ agricultural production efficiency, based on the classical theory of division of labor and specialization, transaction costs and cooperation. It uses 2013 survey data from 396 farms in 15 Chinese provinces to explore the contributing factors of agricultural production efficiency using a double selection model (DSM), which can correct the endogenous selection bias in farmers’ decisions.

Farmers that participate in agricultural division of labor and cooperation means transform their agricultural production from a traditional self-sufficient mode to one that is specialized and intensive. Agricultural division of labor measured by farmers’ participation in an agricultural division of labor in the production stages, or in agricultural products, and agricultural cooperation measured by farmers’ participation in farmers’ cooperatives significantly and positively influence their agricultural production efficiency after correcting farmers’ endogenous selection bias.

This paper proposes a unified framework to analyze the impact of farmers’ agricultural production mode transformation on their production efficiency. Further, it builds a DSM for an empirical analysis to avoid the endogenous biases in farmers’ self-selection behavior. This paper also provides ways for policy makers to improve farmers’ agricultural production efficiency from the modern agricultural production perspective.

For many farm families and operators across the OECD countries, off‐farm income has become a major determinant of their well‐being. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the potential role of off‐farm employment as a risk management tool among farm operators.

A two‐part model is applied to a longitudinal farm‐level data set for about 20,000 Canadian farms, from 2001 to 2006, in order to estimate the relationship between farm income risk and the decision to participate in the off‐farm labor market and the level of off‐farm employment income.

The variability of farm market revenue is found to be positively related to the likelihood of off‐farm work and the level of off‐farm employment income, in particular for operators of relatively large farms. Hence, farm operators' production decisions appear to be conditioned on an income portfolio that includes a substantial amount of off‐farm income for all sizes of farms.

These results reinforce the need to consider the portfolio effect induced by the integration of farm resources within the non‐farm sector. This is particularly relevant to risk management farm policies that have typically considered decisions made in the agricultural sector in isolation.

This paper uses a true farm‐level panel data set to investigate the relationship between farm income risk and off‐farm work. The size of the data set also allows the robustness of the results across farm typologies and size to be tested. This study contributes to the understanding of structural changes in the farm sector, and their potential implications for both rural and agricultural policies.

This study investigates the effect of renting in land on farm productivity, and the impacts of rented-in land size and transaction partner type on farm productivity.

Data from the 2015 China Household Finance Survey are analyzed using an extended regression model and the two-stage least squares method.

Farm households that rent in land are likely to achieve higher farm productivity, and ignoring endogeneity underestimates the positive effect of land renting-in. Further evidence indicates that rented-in land size has an insignificant impact on farm productivity, and that there is no difference in farm productivity between lessees renting-in land from acquaintances and those renting-in land from non-acquaintances. These results may be caused by the higher degree of marketization of land rentals between acquaintances in China. With increasing competition in agricultural factor markets, in theory, rented-in land size should not affect farm productivity.

Overall, the analysis suggests that renting in land improves farm productivity, which supports the land transfer policies that have been rolled out in recent decades in China. However, our finding that rented land size does not affect farm productivity, consistent with the results in the literature, implies that the Chinese government should no longer subsidize or prefer large farms with low productivity. More attention should be paid to small lessees and market-oriented land rentals between acquaintances. Promoting the marketization of land transfers inside acquaintance networks could realize the potential of the land market, especially if land transfers decrease.

This study identifies the effects of renting in land, rented-in land size and type of rental transaction partner on farm productivity using nationally representative data. The findings imply that the government should pay more attention to the marketization of land rentals between acquaintances. Although existing studies regard land rental between acquaintances as informal and of low efficiency, the recent evidence shows that China's land markets are changing, and policy makers should adjust their policies accordingly.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the effects of recent demographic transition and rising labor costs on agricultural production structure and pattern in China during 1998-2012.

The authors, first, theoretically discuss the effects of changing relative input prices due to rising labor cost on producers’ decisions regarding input mix (substitution effect), output level, and product quality (output effect). A logarithmic mean Divisia index decomposition method is then applied to empirically identify these effects at aggregated levels, followed by an analysis based on the visualization of land use indicators on changing cropping patterns across Chinese provinces.

The authors find that tightened effective agricultural labor supply and rises in rural labor costs are associated with divergent changes in input mixes and output choices across products. Producers of land-intensive products focusing more on input mix adjustment, while those of labor-intensive products seem to more likely to adjust output choices. Producers’ adaption strategies also varied across Chinese provinces due to natural conditions, leading to shifts and concentrations in the regional distribution of agricultural products, with lower-value bulk products concentrating in the plain areas, whereas higher-value horticulture products increasingly prevailing in sloped areas.

This paper illustrates how adjustments in input mixes and output choice in Chinese agriculture counteracted disadvantages caused by rising labor costs and how such adjustments are product and region specific. Based on these observations, implications regarding further innovations in production technology and institutional arrangements needed within China’s agricultural sector are highlighted in the paper.

The determinants of income of rural and urban farm households, with emphasis on the role of off-farm employment by farm household members and of farm size, are examined using data from the 2016 Agricultural Resource Management Survey (ARMS) and quantile regression procedure. The implemented quantile regression technique is extended to allow for the decomposition of the income gap between the two groups of farm households. Findings indicate, regardless of the location of the farm, a positive and significant impact of a previous year's participation in off-farm work by household members on the distribution of current household income. Having operated a larger-sized farm in the previous year is shown with a similar effect in the upper range of the income distribution for urban households and with a comparable impact but across the whole income distribution for rural farm households.

Data from the 2016 ARMS are used in conjunction with quantile regression in order for decomposition of the income gap between the two groups of farm households.

Findings show that urban farm households who in a previous year have participated in off-farm work and operated larger-sized farms tend to earn higher incomes. Results further indicate higher rates of return to education for “urban” farm households in comparison to “rural” farm households, particularly for those with a college education and beyond who are at the lower portion of the income distribution.

To the extent that the ARMS is an annual cross-sectional data, the temporal impacts of factors that potentially may influence the incomes of farm households in urban and rural areas cannot be measured.

Findings from this research indirectly support previous published research where higher earnings by urban US population were documented in comparison to rural population and where earnings tend to rise as a result of participation in off-farm work and in expanding the size of the farming operation; this is in addition to the procurement of higher education.

The results of a higher rate of return to education for “urban” farm households in comparison to “rural” farm households have important policy implications for policymakers.

This is the first paper in the agricultural economic literature that implements a method of assessing the rural–urban divide across all of the quantiles of income distribution.

Moringa (Moringa oleifera) is a highly nutritious, fast-growing crop that has emerged in Western markets as a “superfood” and as a “smart crop” for income generation potential among small-scale farmers. As such, moringa has been widely promoted by agricultural development practitioners in low-income countries and by emerging businesses aimed at achieving nutritional and social impact. However, the intrinsic nutritional and agronomic strengths of moringa are not enough to warrant its widespread promotion without first evaluating its economic potential to farmers.

A Land Use System (LUS) analysis modeling tool was employed to test the economic performance of two sets of moringa production practices in Kenya. Data were collected during in-depth interviews and field visits with farmers in Meru that supply a local market, and in Shimba Hills that supply an organic export market.

Results suggest that current production practices over an 12-years assessment period generate a Net Present Value (NPV) of US$8,049 [ha-1] in Meru and a negative NPV of US$697 [ha-1] in Shimba Hills; with average daily returns to family labor of these two production systems of roughly 1.6 times and 0.13 times the prevailing local wage rate, respectively. These differences were attributed to a higher farmgate prices and greater yields in Meru. The analysis tool was then used to predict the effects of changes in farming practices, e.g. if farmers in Meru switched to intensive bed cultivation NPV is estimated to increase by ∼650%.

This study demonstrates the importance of examining the economic performance of agricultural production systems intended to increase the benefits to small-scale farmers.

Our study is the first to assess moringa's economic performance within two production systems in Kenya – a local farmers' cooperative in Meru, and a group of farmers contracted by an export company.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the preconditions for an upward economic mobility in time of immigrants working in agriculture. It argues this through an analysis of immigrants in the Greek countryside and a comparison of their performance to immigrants working in rural areas of other major host countries, for which the research has shown stagnant or even deteriorating economic conditions over time.

Field research in two Northern Greek rural prefectures between May 2007 and January 2008. Use of questionnaires addressed to 165 immigrants and 40 key‐informants.

The immigrants' ability to improve their economic conditions stems mainly from three labour market characteristics which differentiate the Greek countryside from other major host countries' rural areas. The first is the interpersonal relation of mutual trust that is built between immigrants and farmers. This relationship provides immigrants with a steady employment and allows them to develop strategies to increase their income by either working within or outside agriculture. The second is the lack of intermediaries in the labour market which allows immigrants to freely negotiate their wages, to move from agriculture to non‐agricultural jobs, and thus to achieve upward occupational mobility. The third is the lack of competition between old and new immigrants, which does not negatively affect their day wages. Therefore, we conclude that the structural differences in the agricultural labour markets of different countries lead to different opportunities of immigrants' economic improvement.

Fills the major gap in the European and Greek literature of immigrants in the countryside and especially their socioeconomic mobility over time.