Does rural non-farm employment relieve or exacerbate the agricultural diversification-farm efficiency tradeoff: The case of aquaculture in Bangladesh

This paper studies how rural non-farm employment conditions the relationship between agricultural diversification and fish production efficiency. Competition for scarce productive resources typically implies a compromise between agricultural diversification and efficiency. Yet, the potential for non...

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Autores principales: Abaidoo, Eric, Belton, Ben, Reardon, Thomas, Jin, Songqing, Malone, Trey
Formato: Journal Article
Lenguaje:Inglés
Publicado: Informa UK Limited 2025
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169383
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author Abaidoo, Eric
Belton, Ben
Reardon, Thomas
Jin, Songqing
Malone, Trey
author_browse Abaidoo, Eric
Belton, Ben
Jin, Songqing
Malone, Trey
Reardon, Thomas
author_facet Abaidoo, Eric
Belton, Ben
Reardon, Thomas
Jin, Songqing
Malone, Trey
author_sort Abaidoo, Eric
collection Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace)
description This paper studies how rural non-farm employment conditions the relationship between agricultural diversification and fish production efficiency. Competition for scarce productive resources typically implies a compromise between agricultural diversification and efficiency. Yet, the potential for non-farm income to resolve this tradeoff remains understudied. Cash from non-farm sources may support productivity-enhancing input purchase, thereby improving efficiency. On the other hand, by diversifying both on- and off-farm, household resources such as labor may be stretched too thin, lowering fish production efficiency. Using micro-level data on fish farming households in Southern Bangladesh, we show that at higher levels of the non-farm income share, diversification into crops results in significant allocative inefficiencies. Results are inconclusive for the technical efficiency measure.
format Journal Article
id CGSpace169383
institution CGIAR Consortium
language Inglés
publishDate 2025
publishDateRange 2025
publishDateSort 2025
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publisherStr Informa UK Limited
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spelling CGSpace1693832025-10-26T12:56:54Z Does rural non-farm employment relieve or exacerbate the agricultural diversification-farm efficiency tradeoff: The case of aquaculture in Bangladesh Abaidoo, Eric Belton, Ben Reardon, Thomas Jin, Songqing Malone, Trey rural employment agriculture diversification aquaculture efficiency labour allocation This paper studies how rural non-farm employment conditions the relationship between agricultural diversification and fish production efficiency. Competition for scarce productive resources typically implies a compromise between agricultural diversification and efficiency. Yet, the potential for non-farm income to resolve this tradeoff remains understudied. Cash from non-farm sources may support productivity-enhancing input purchase, thereby improving efficiency. On the other hand, by diversifying both on- and off-farm, household resources such as labor may be stretched too thin, lowering fish production efficiency. Using micro-level data on fish farming households in Southern Bangladesh, we show that at higher levels of the non-farm income share, diversification into crops results in significant allocative inefficiencies. Results are inconclusive for the technical efficiency measure. 2025-07-03 2025-01-17T21:56:21Z 2025-01-17T21:56:21Z Journal Article https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169383 en Open Access Informa UK Limited Abaidoo, Eric; Belton, Ben; Reardon, Thomas; Jin, Songqing; and Malone, Trey. 2025. Does rural non-farm employment relieve or exacerbate the agricultural diversification-farm efficiency tradeoff: The case of aquaculture in Bangladesh. Aquaculture Economics and Management 29(3): 398-427. https://doi.org/10.1080/13657305.2024.2446142
spellingShingle rural employment
agriculture
diversification
aquaculture
efficiency
labour allocation
Abaidoo, Eric
Belton, Ben
Reardon, Thomas
Jin, Songqing
Malone, Trey
Does rural non-farm employment relieve or exacerbate the agricultural diversification-farm efficiency tradeoff: The case of aquaculture in Bangladesh
title Does rural non-farm employment relieve or exacerbate the agricultural diversification-farm efficiency tradeoff: The case of aquaculture in Bangladesh
title_full Does rural non-farm employment relieve or exacerbate the agricultural diversification-farm efficiency tradeoff: The case of aquaculture in Bangladesh
title_fullStr Does rural non-farm employment relieve or exacerbate the agricultural diversification-farm efficiency tradeoff: The case of aquaculture in Bangladesh
title_full_unstemmed Does rural non-farm employment relieve or exacerbate the agricultural diversification-farm efficiency tradeoff: The case of aquaculture in Bangladesh
title_short Does rural non-farm employment relieve or exacerbate the agricultural diversification-farm efficiency tradeoff: The case of aquaculture in Bangladesh
title_sort does rural non farm employment relieve or exacerbate the agricultural diversification farm efficiency tradeoff the case of aquaculture in bangladesh
topic rural employment
agriculture
diversification
aquaculture
efficiency
labour allocation
url https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169383
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