Long-Term Determinants of Agricultural Output in Smallholder Farmers in Rwanda

This paper analyses the household level drivers of agricultural output in Nyabihu District, a densely populated area of rural Rwanda, over the past 26 years. We use a unique two-wave panel dataset spanning a 26-year period, linking the split-off households in 2012 to the original households in 1986. The findings identify the relative importance of labor, land, and capital for output growth in the study area. Over the studied period, the agricultural output has been characterized by decreasing elasticities of land and capital; whereas the elasticity of labor has grown three-fold. The findings also suggest a substantial impact of mobile phone technology adoption by farm households. Using propensity score matching, we find that agricultural output for mobile phone users is at least 38 percent higher than non-users.