FARM SIZE, HOUSEHOLD SIZE AND COMPOSITION, AND WOMENS CONTRIBUTION TO AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION - EVIDENCE FROM ZAIRE

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 Binswanger and McIntire. In an environment fairly comparable to their base case, we find empirical support 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. Our results 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—McLntire base case. © 1990, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.