Farm size and productivity in Malawian smallholder agriculture

Abstract

This article contributes to the limited literature on farm size and productivity in smallholder agriculture in sub‐Saharan Africa. Farm survey data, and the results from a linear programming farm‐household model, provide evidence for a positive relationship between farm size and productivity in both labour‐scarce and land‐scarce smallholder farming in Malawi during the 1980's. The absence of an inverse relationship is explained in terms of failures in land, capital and produce markets with acute capital constraints, which affect both capital and labour inputs on smaller farms. Implications for rural development policies are discussed.