Browsing by Author "Wobst, Peter"

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    Determinants of Rural Labor Market Participation in Tanzania
    (2005) Mduma, John K.; Wobst, Peter
    Participation in rural off-farm activities (outside a household's own farm) is one of the livelihood strategies among poor rural households in many developing countries. One component of off-farm activities accessible to the very poor is wage labor because it does not require any complementary physical capital. A household’s ability to participate in the rural labor market depends on the characteristics of the household itself and the local labor markets conditions. This study examines the factors that determine the number of households supplying labor to a particular rural local labor market in rural areas of Tanzania and the share of labor income in total cash income. The study finds that education level, availability of land, and access to economic centers and credit are the most important factors in determining the number of households that participate in a particular rural local labor market and the share of labor income in total cash income.
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    Technical Efficiency of Smallholder Farmers in Malawi in the Post-Reform Era: Which Policies Matter Most?
    (2005) Tchale, Hardwick; Kumwenda, Ian; Wobst, Peter; Mduma, John K.
    The development of Malawian smallholder agriculture has since the 1980s gone through many challenges and there are fears that this may have been a precursor to unsustainable agricultural intensification and worsening poverty. In this paper, we conduct an empirical assessment of smallholder technical efficiency and its determinants using farm household and plot data. We use a non-parametric frontier analysis to analyze the technical efficiency of farmers in the maize-based mixed farming systems. In addition, we use a regression-based estimation to assess the socio-economic and policy related factors that may explain the estimated levels of technical efficiency. The results indicate low to medium levels of technical efficiency, depending on crop variety and soil fertility management option used. Higher levels of relative technical efficiency are obtained when farmers use integrated soil fertility options compared to the use of inorganic fertilizer only. Of the policy variables included in the analysis, agricultural input and output market, credit and extension access strongly influence smallholder technical efficiency. Government needs to resuscitate these public policy issues in order to effectively address sustainability of Malawian agriculture and its impact on poverty.
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    Village Level Labor Market Development in Tanzania : Evidence from Spatial Econometrics
    (2005) Mduma, John K.; Wobst, Peter
    While many empirical studies show that participation in rural labor markets is an important household livelihood strategy, data on Tanzania show that the participation in the rural labor markets is still relatively low. This study examines the factors behind the development of village labor markets in Tanzania. Using spatial econometric techniques, the study shows that, despite their incipient development, rural labor markets in Tanzania are significantly interlinked across space. Furthermore, underlying factors for development of rural labor markets, such as access to roads and availability of credit, have varying impact across space. This implies that policy interventions would also have varying effects over space. The study shows that most of the policy interventions for promoting rural labor markets are likely to have greater impact in the northern (eastern) parts of the country than in the southern (western) part of the Tanzania.