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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Farm Size, Household Size and Composition, and Women's Contribution to Agricultural Production: Evidence from Zaire
Author:Shapiro, DavidISNI
Year:1990
Periodical:Journal of Development Studies
Volume:27
Issue:1
Period:October
Pages:1-21
Language:English
Geographic term:Congo (Democratic Republic of)
Subjects:subsistence farming
women's work
Women's Issues
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Labor and Employment
agriculture
Cultural Roles
Family Life
Sex Roles
External link:https://doi.org/10.1080/00220389008422179
Abstract:This article examines a unique data set on peasant farms in Zaire, focusing on several of the propositions regarding land-abundant tropical agriculture recently set forth by H.P. Binswanger and J. McIntire (1987). In an environment fairly comparable to their base case, empirical support can be found for their contentions concerning the virtual universality of self-cultivation, the limited extent of hiring of labour, and the importance for farm size of the household's age-sex composition. Women's contribution to farm size at the margin is larger than that of men, although this difference is apparent only among larger households. The results of the authors' 1985-1986 survey in Zaire differ somewhat from the Binswanger-McIntire proposition that area cultivated per working household member will be largely invariant to household size or wealth. There is a decline in cultivated area per worker as household size increases that may reflect incentive problems as well as a tendency toward greater diversification of household activities as household size increases. Wealthy households have relatively large cultivated areas, probably as a consequence of the existence of greater access to external output markets than was assumed in the Binswanger-McIntire base case. Bibliogr., notes, ref.
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