TY - JOUR

T1 - Micro insights on the pathways to agricultural transformation

T2 - Comparative evidence from Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa

AU - Amare, Mulubrhan

AU - Parvathi, Priyanka

AU - Nguyen, Trung Thanh

N1 - Funding Information: We thank Christopher B. Barrett for his very critical and useful comments and suggestions. We appreciate financial support from the German Research Foundation (DFG) through the long‐term Thailand‐Vietnam Socioeconomic Panel Project (DFG—FOR 756/2). The research was also funded by and conducted as part of the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), which is led by IFPRI. Constructive comments and suggestions from the World Bank—ICABR Conference “Disruptive Innovations, Value Chains, and Rural Development”, Washington DC, are acknowledged. We are also grateful to the constructive comments and suggestions from Editor Corinne Langinier and two anonymous reviewers.

PY - 2023/4/26

Y1 - 2023/4/26

N2 - Most studies of agricultural transformation document the impact of agricultural income growth on macroeconomic indicators of development. Much less is known about the micro-scale changes within the farming sector that signal a transformation precipitated by agricultural income growth. This study provides a comparative analysis of the patterns of micro-level changes that occur among small-holder farmers in Uganda and Malawi in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia (SEA). Our analysis provides several important insights on agricultural transformation in these two regions. First, agricultural income in all examined countries is vulnerable to changes in precipitation and temperature, an effect that is nonlinear and asymmetric. SSA countries are more vulnerable to these weather changes. Second, exogenous increases in agricultural income in previous years improve non-farm income and trigger a change in labor allocation within the rural sector in SEA. However, this is the opposite in SSA where the increase in agricultural income reduces non-farm income, indicating a substitution effect between farm and non-farm sectors. These findings reveal clear agricultural transformation driven by agricultural income in SEA but no similar evidence in SSA.

AB - Most studies of agricultural transformation document the impact of agricultural income growth on macroeconomic indicators of development. Much less is known about the micro-scale changes within the farming sector that signal a transformation precipitated by agricultural income growth. This study provides a comparative analysis of the patterns of micro-level changes that occur among small-holder farmers in Uganda and Malawi in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), and Thailand and Vietnam in Southeast Asia (SEA). Our analysis provides several important insights on agricultural transformation in these two regions. First, agricultural income in all examined countries is vulnerable to changes in precipitation and temperature, an effect that is nonlinear and asymmetric. SSA countries are more vulnerable to these weather changes. Second, exogenous increases in agricultural income in previous years improve non-farm income and trigger a change in labor allocation within the rural sector in SEA. However, this is the opposite in SSA where the increase in agricultural income reduces non-farm income, indicating a substitution effect between farm and non-farm sectors. These findings reveal clear agricultural transformation driven by agricultural income in SEA but no similar evidence in SSA.

KW - agricultural transformation

KW - small-holder farmers

KW - Southeast Asia

KW - Sub-Saharan Africa

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85149310289&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1111/cjag.12326

DO - 10.1111/cjag.12326

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85149310289

VL - 71

SP - 69

EP - 87

JO - Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics

JF - Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics

SN - 0008-3976

IS - 1

ER -