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In Africa, most development strategies include efforts to improve the productivity of staple crops grown on smallholder farms. An underlying premise is that small farms are productive in the African context and that smallholders do not forgo economies of scale-a premise supported by the often observed phenomenon that staple cereal yields decline as the scale of production increases. This paper explores a research design conundrum that encourages researchers who study the relationship between productivity and scale to use surveys with a narrow geographic reach, when policy would be better served with studies based on wide and heterogeneous settings. Using a model of endogenous technology choice, the authors explore the relationship between maize yields and scale using alternative data. Since rich descriptions of the decision environments that farmers face are needed to identify the applied technologies that generate the data, improvements in the location specificity of the data should reduce the likelihood of identification errors and biased estimates. However, the analysis finds that the inverse productivity hypothesis holds up well across a broad platform of data, despite obvious shortcomings with some components. It also finds surprising consistency in the estimated scale elasticities.

Agriculture --- Climate Change and Agriculture --- Crops & Crop Management Systems --- Economic Theory & Research --- Farm size --- Inverse productivity --- Labor Policies --- Rural Development --- Rural Development Knowledge & Information Systems --- Smallholders --- Technology choice --- Sub-Saharan Africa

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Agriculture in Tanzania accounts for 28 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs 80 percent of its labor force. The sector is also an important source of export revenues. The data and findings presented in this report provide a summary of the performance of the agriculture sector in Tanzania using a set of indicators covering six areas. These are: 1) access to and availability of certified seed; 2) availability of and access to fertilizer; 3) access to farm machinery, particularly tractor hire services for land preparation; 4) access to agricultural and agro-enterprise finance; 5) the cost and efficiency of transporting agricultural commodities; and 6) measures of policy certainty and uncertainty as perceived by private investors and the effects these have on the enabling environment for producers and agribusinesses. The Agribusiness Indicators (ABI) team conducted interviews with Government agencies, private firms (fertilizer importers, seed companies, tractor importers and distributors, transporters), commercial banks, farmer-based organizations, donors, and Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs). The ABI program is pilot testing an initial set of indicators on the ease (or difficulty) of operating agribusinesses in African countries. The indicators are used to assess whether the countries have an enabling environment that is conducive to agribusiness investment, competitiveness, and ultimately agriculture-led growth.

Access to Finance --- Accreditation --- Agribusiness --- Agricultural Finance --- Agricultural Productivity --- Agricultural Sector --- Agricultural Sector Economics --- Agriculture --- Capacity Building --- Cash Crops --- Chambers of Commerce --- Climate --- Climate Change and Agriculture --- Coffee --- Collateral --- Commercial Banks --- Commercialization --- Contract Farming --- Cooperatives --- Cotton --- Crop Yields --- Economies of Scale --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Services --- Food Security --- Fuel Prices --- Grains --- Interest Rates --- Maize --- Maritime Transport --- Microfinance Institutions --- Natural Resources --- Population Density --- Profitability --- Rice --- Roads --- Rural Development --- Rural Services and Infrastructure --- Savings --- Seeds --- Smallholders --- Transport --- Transport Costs --- Urban Areas --- Villages --- Wheat

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Agriculture and agribusiness play an important role in the Zambian economy, contributing around 20 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in recent years and about 12 percent of national export earnings. Agriculture employs nearly 70 percent of the labor force and remains the main source of income and employment for most of the people living in rural areas. The objective of the Zambia agribusiness indicators (ABI) country report is to examine factors that have affected agricultural productivity, market access, and the policy environment for agriculture in Zambia. This report presents findings of a data collection exercise carried out to compile a set of pilot ABI for Zambia. The pilot indicators presented are based on a review of the literature, government statistical bulletins, and primary interviews in the seed, fertilizer, mechanization, agricultural finance, and transport subsectors. The resulting indicators are presented in matrix form, together with notes indicating the specific data source (or sources) used for each indicator. A set of questionnaires was developed for this part of the exercise based on guidelines. Perception indicators on the quality of road infrastructure and other transport sector issues were added to supplement the checklist guidelines. The anticipated impact of the presentation of country performances will be to raise the competitiveness of African agriculture by bringing into sharper focus measures of how individual countries are transitioning towards a more commercial agriculture. This report consists of following seven chapters: chapter one gives introduction; chapter two presents access to and use of improved seed; chapter three focuses on fertilizer access and availability; chapter four focuses on access to farm machinery and tractor hire services; chapter five presents access to agricultural and agri-enterprise finance; chapter six gives cost and efficiency of transport in Zambia; and chapter seven presents policy and enabling environment for agribusiness development.

Access to Finance --- Accreditation --- Agribusiness --- Agricultural Finance --- Agricultural Productivity --- Agricultural Sector --- Agriculture --- Barley --- Beans --- Cash Crops --- Climate --- Climate Change and Agriculture --- Commercial Banks --- Commercialization --- Cooperatives --- Cotton --- Crop Yields --- Crops --- Crops & Crop Management Systems --- Environment --- Environmental Economics & Policies --- Equity --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Financial Institutions --- Financial Services --- Food Security --- Gross Domestic Product --- International Finance --- Livestock --- Loans --- Maize --- Microfinance Institutions --- Open Markets --- Plants --- Private Investment --- Privatization --- Profitability --- Recycling --- Rice --- Risk Management --- Savings --- Seeds --- Smallholders --- Soybeans --- Sugar --- Tariffs --- Taxes --- Technical Assistance --- Trade --- Urban Areas --- Villages --- Wheat