The relationship between farm size and land productivity of rice farming households in the Mekong Delta

Abstract

The paper aims to analyze the relationship between farm size and land productivity of rice farming households in the Mekong Delta and help households identify the optimal size thresholds to maximize land productivity. The results show an inverted U-shaped nonlinear relationship between operated farm size and land productivity by using the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression based on randomly-collected data from 337 rice farms in the Mekong Delta. The findings show a statistical significance of the relationship and point out factors positively affecting land productivity including farmers’ participation in training, households’ working-age members, and their residence. The study also reveals the factor negatively affecting land productivity which is the distance from the household to the rice field. The paper then proposes some solutions for farmers to make effective use of resources and reasonable scale investment in rice cultivation to maximize land productivity.

Keywords

• canh tác lúa
• năng suất đất
• quy mô đất canh tác