Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/59127 
Year of Publication: 
2010
Series/Report no.: 
Center Discussion Paper No. 991
Publisher: 
Yale University, Economic Growth Center, New Haven, CT
Abstract: 
We show empirically using panel data at the plot and farm level and based on a model incorporating supervision costs, risk, credit-market imperfections and scale-economies associated with mechanization that small-scale farming is inefficient in India. Larger farms are more profitable per acre, more mechanized, less constrained in input use after bad shocks, and employ less per-acre labor than small farms. Based on our structural estimates of the effects of farm size on labor use and the distribution of Indian landholdings, we estimate that over 20% of the Indian agricultural labor force is surplus if minimum farm scale is 20 acres.
Subjects: 
agriculture
India
scale
profits
labor
tractors
JEL: 
O13
O16
O53
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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