Do farmers’ organizations enhance the welfare of smallholders? Findings from the Mozambican national agricultural survey

Abstract

Farmers’ organizations have been used as a tool to improve the living conditions of farmers in many countries by improving market access, access to information and capacity to increase production. I employ panel data from Mozambique to investigate how membership in farmers’ organizations impacts smallholders’ welfare. Using difference-in-difference estimators that control for unobservable selection bias, I find a positive impact of membership on the marketed surplus (25%), the value of agricultural production (18%) and on total income (15%, and more than 20% for those whose main source of cash income is the agricultural sector).