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THE EFFECT OF LAND FRAGMENTATION ON THE PRODUCTIVITY
AND TECHNICAL EFFICIENCY OF SMALLHOLDER MAIZE FARMS IN SOUTHERN
RWANDA
BY
KARANGWA MATHIAS, B.A Economics (National University of
Rwanda)
A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL FOR THE AWARD
OF A DEGREE OF MASTER OF SCIENCE IN AGRICULTURAL AND APPLIED ECONOMICS OF
MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
SEPTEMBER 2010
DECLARATION
I, Mathias Karangwa, hereby declare that this thesis is my
original work and has never been submitted to any other academic institution
for the award of a degree.
Mathias Karangwa
..............................................................
This thesis has been submitted to the school of graduate
studies of MAKERERE UNIVERSITY with the approval of the following
supervisors:
Dr. Fredrick Bagamba PhD (Agricultural
Economics)............................
Date.............................................................
Dr. Bernard Bashaasha PhD (Agricultural
Economics)...........................
Date...........................................................
(c) MAKERERE UNIVERSITY
DEDICATION
This thesis is dedicated to my late mother, Rose Buhinja
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I primarily acknowledge my Supervisors, Dr. Fredrick Bagamba
and Dr. Bernard Bashaasha for their friendly and useful advice, guidance and
corrections that helped me to complete this work.
My sincere thanks are extended to the Germany Academic
Exchange Service/Deutscher Akademischer Austausch Dienst (DAAD), the African
Economics Research Consortium (AERC) and the Collaborative Master's program in
Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAAE) for the financial support.
Finally, I thank all the staff of the Department of
Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Faculty of Agriculture, Makerere
University for the knowledge they imparted in me throughout the two years I
stayed at this institution. I am grateful to my classmates, with whom I shared
knowledge and experiences.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF TABLES
LIST OF FIGURES
ABSTRACT
The government of Rwanda believes that land fragmentation is a
major threat to efficient crop production in the country due to the fact that
continuous subdivision of farms has led to small sized land holdings that may
be hard to economically operate. This study analyzed the determinants of the
productivity and technical efficiency of smallholder maize farms in Gisagara
district with a particular focus on land fragmentation using plot size, number
of plots per household and distance from the households' residences to plots as
measures of land fragmentation. Gisagara district was chosen because previous
empirical studies showed high land fragmentation there. The main objective of
this study was to determine the effect of the various dimensions of land
fragmentation on the productivity and efficiency of smallholder farms in
Rwanda. To attain this objective, hypotheses testing whether the various
dimensions of land fragmentation had positive/negative effect on productivity
and efficiency of farms were stated and tested.
This study adopted the stochastic frontier approach adopted
because being a parametric approach, it deals with stochastic noise, and allows
hypothesis testing on the production structure and efficiency. Though
smallholder maize farms were found to be technically efficient, their
efficiency levels would be improved if land fragmentation effects were
mitigated. The main conclusion is that land fragmentation affects the technical
efficiency of farms but the various dimensions of land fragmentation affect
efficiency differently. The number of plots negatively affected technical
efficiency of farms; Distance to plots and size of the plot had no significant
effect on technical efficiency of farms.
In terms of productivity, this study found out that farm size
positively affected the productivity of farms, having many plots reduced
productivity and distance to plots did not have a significant effect on
productivity and the interaction term () also had no significant effect
suggesting that land fragmentation is probably not a big problem as long as
plots are close to homes. Land consolidation is recommended and should be
implemented. Education be availed to rural farmers and land titling be done
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