Facilitating outflow of surplus labor in African agriculture is important for increasing rural agricultural wages, making African labor resources more productive. This paper uses rare panel data on rural households in Tanzania to investigate patterns in rural non-farm economy (RNFE) employment choices. The paper is further distinguished from regular RNFE studies by its concentration on farmer choices between non-agricultural wage employment and non-agricultural self-employment. Results suggest that assets are key predictors of households’ participation in agriculture as well as in the rural nonfarm economy. In general, household participation in non-agricultural wage employment (over agricultural employment) correlates positively with educational attainment, non-agricultural wealth, access to electricity, and household size, but declines in land size, and agricultural wealth index. Similarly, household participation in non-agricultural self-employment (over agricultural employment) is increasing in non-agricultural wealth and household size, and decreasing in agricultural wealth, and age of household head. Finally, household participation in non-agricultural self-employment (over non-agricultural wage employment) is increasing in non-agricultural wealth, and decreasing in access to electricity.

nonfarm, self-employment, Tanzania, panel, wage employment, labor migration.

Received: November 5, 2021; Accepted: December 27, 2021; Published: January 17, 2021

How to cite this article: Godwin Debrah and Kwami Adanu, Understanding rural agricultural labor mobility in Africa - a panel analysis of the Tanzanian case, JP Journal of Biostatistics 19 (2022), 57-79. DOI: 10.17654/0973514322004

This Open Access Article is Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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