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Results are presented in table 7.6 for area growth rates, table 7.7 for production growth rates,
and table 7.8 for yield growth rates. Missing data for some years and crops render interpretation of
some rates problematic, but rates are presented whenever at least three years of data are available. A
number of findings stand out:
Area harvested
► Total area cultivated by small farms in the northwest region appears to have been increasing
at annualized rate of 13.9 percent since 1975 but has stagnated (0.8 percent) in recent years.
Total area cultivated in the southeast appears to have remained relatively flat since 1975.
► Data suggest that total area cultivated by the largest farms in the northwest region has
increased moderately at an annualized rate of 1.2 percent since 1975 but declined 34.4 percent
since 1983. In the southeast, total area appears to have remained relatively flat (an increase
of 1.5 percent since 1975 and 3.7 percent since 1983).
► The decline in maize area over time mentioned earlier for national-level figures seems to have
been the result primarily of declining maize production on large farms. Maize area cultivated
in the northwest region by the smallest farm size category appears to have increased at an
average annualized rate of 13.7 percent since 1975 and 1.1 percent since 1983. In contrast,
growth in maize area in the same region on the largest farms (2,000+ hectares) appears to
have declined at an annualized rate of 2.9 percent since 1975, and data suggest maize area has
plummeted (46.3 percent) since 1983. Roughly similar trends are observed for the southeast
region.
► Small farm hectareage of nearly all crops in the northwest region (excluding wheat and
Virginia tobacco, where the base is small) seems to have increased rapidly since 1975,
particularly so for cotton (20.1 percent), sunflower (15.3 percent), potatoes (13.4 percent),
and soybeans (5.6 percent). Growth in cotton area (73.9 percent) and soybeans (68.1 percent)
since 1983 appears particularly high and comes at the expense of coffee, wheat, and tobacco.
In the southeast region, data suggest growth in cotton area (12.1 percent) and wheat (5.4
percent) is displacing other crops, particularly maize and soybeans.
► Data suggest that large farms in the southeast have over the long term been shifting emphasis
to burley tobacco (64.8 percent), wheat (25.2 percent), soybeans (27.0 percent), and cotton
(7.6 percent), and away from maize (-3.2 percent), and sunflower (-8.9 percent). Area growth
since 1983 in burley tobacco (139.0 percent), wheat (69.1 percent), and soybeans (32.4
percent) appears particularly robust.
Production and yield
► Small farms. Data from the northwest suggest rapid growth in the production of coffee (57.0
percent), seed maize (34.0 percent), burley tobacco (33.3 percent), sunflower (22.6 percent),
maize (16.7 percent), and cotton (10.5 percent) has been achieved by small farms since 1975.
Growth in output by small farms in the southeast has been more moderate, with production
declines experienced in maize, tobacco, soybeans, potato, and cotton.