Smallholder farm size distribution across sub-Saharan Africa
Farm size is a key asset to smallholder farmers, strongly correlated to other farm resources. Understanding farm size distribution is therefore important to target and scale up interventions whose adoptability is intricately linked to farm resource endowment. Although, heterogeneity in farm sizes is...
| Autores principales: | , , |
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| Formato: | Informe técnico |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center
2024
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/159853 |
| _version_ | 1855542271841140736 |
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| author | Hougni, Deo-Gratias Silva, Joao Vasco Chamberlin, Jordan |
| author_browse | Chamberlin, Jordan Hougni, Deo-Gratias Silva, Joao Vasco |
| author_facet | Hougni, Deo-Gratias Silva, Joao Vasco Chamberlin, Jordan |
| author_sort | Hougni, Deo-Gratias |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Farm size is a key asset to smallholder farmers, strongly correlated to other farm resources. Understanding farm size distribution is therefore important to target and scale up interventions whose adoptability is intricately linked to farm resource endowment. Although, heterogeneity in farm sizes is recognised across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), there is a longstanding challenge to describe and characterize it. A panel of household surveys run across 14 countries between 2008 and 2021 was used to evaluate the capacity of selected biophysical and socioeconomic features to infer and predict spatial farm size distribution. The features include, but are not limited to population density, long-term annual air temperature and rainfall, travel time to the nearest city. The unit of spatial analysis was a grid cell of about 10 km x 10 km. Using a random-forest model, the complete set of features was able to explain 50% of the variation in average farm sizes across the continent. The relative importance of individual features was country-specific. These results highlight the spatial clustering of average farm sizes, the adequacy of fitting locally farm sizes to log-normal distribution, and the multiplicity of farm size drivers across the continent. |
| format | Informe técnico |
| id | CGSpace159853 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| publishDateRange | 2024 |
| publishDateSort | 2024 |
| publisher | International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center |
| publisherStr | International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1598532024-11-16T02:11:34Z Smallholder farm size distribution across sub-Saharan Africa Hougni, Deo-Gratias Silva, Joao Vasco Chamberlin, Jordan farming systems farm area farm size sustainable intensification smallholders Farm size is a key asset to smallholder farmers, strongly correlated to other farm resources. Understanding farm size distribution is therefore important to target and scale up interventions whose adoptability is intricately linked to farm resource endowment. Although, heterogeneity in farm sizes is recognised across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), there is a longstanding challenge to describe and characterize it. A panel of household surveys run across 14 countries between 2008 and 2021 was used to evaluate the capacity of selected biophysical and socioeconomic features to infer and predict spatial farm size distribution. The features include, but are not limited to population density, long-term annual air temperature and rainfall, travel time to the nearest city. The unit of spatial analysis was a grid cell of about 10 km x 10 km. Using a random-forest model, the complete set of features was able to explain 50% of the variation in average farm sizes across the continent. The relative importance of individual features was country-specific. These results highlight the spatial clustering of average farm sizes, the adequacy of fitting locally farm sizes to log-normal distribution, and the multiplicity of farm size drivers across the continent. 2024-10 2024-11-15T19:04:37Z 2024-11-15T19:04:37Z Report https://hdl.handle.net/10568/159853 en Open Access application/pdf International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center Hougni, D.G.J.M., Silva, J.V., Chamberlin, J. (2024). Smallholder farm size distribution across sub-Saharan Africa. CGIAR research initiative on Mixed Farming Systems (MFS). International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center. Harare, Zimbabwe |
| spellingShingle | farming systems farm area farm size sustainable intensification smallholders Hougni, Deo-Gratias Silva, Joao Vasco Chamberlin, Jordan Smallholder farm size distribution across sub-Saharan Africa |
| title | Smallholder farm size distribution across sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_full | Smallholder farm size distribution across sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_fullStr | Smallholder farm size distribution across sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_full_unstemmed | Smallholder farm size distribution across sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_short | Smallholder farm size distribution across sub-Saharan Africa |
| title_sort | smallholder farm size distribution across sub saharan africa |
| topic | farming systems farm area farm size sustainable intensification smallholders |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/159853 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT hougnideogratias smallholderfarmsizedistributionacrosssubsaharanafrica AT silvajoaovasco smallholderfarmsizedistributionacrosssubsaharanafrica AT chamberlinjordan smallholderfarmsizedistributionacrosssubsaharanafrica |