Premium
Off‐farm Employment and Input Intensification among Smallholder Maize Farmers in Kenya
Author(s) -
Mathenge Mary K.,
Smale Melinda,
Tschirley David
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
journal of agricultural economics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.157
H-Index - 61
eISSN - 1477-9552
pISSN - 0021-857X
DOI - 10.1111/1477-9552.12093
Subject(s) - agriculture , agricultural economics , wage , economics , production (economics) , farm income , agricultural science , business , labour economics , environmental science , biology , macroeconomics , ecology
Abstract We derive input demand functions for fertiliser and hybrid seed, testing for the combined and separate effects of income from non‐farm sources and agricultural wage labour among smallholder maize farmers in Kenya. More income from off‐farm sources, and specifically non‐farm sources, competes with maize intensification, particularly in more productive areas where use rates are higher. In less productive areas, where households rely more on off‐farm income and input use in maize is extremely low, agricultural wage labour reduces the likelihood that fertiliser is applied, but when used, has a positive effect on quantities purchased of both seed and fertiliser.