Abstract:
Abstract
The structure and performance of the land tenancy market has an implication on efficiency of the
sector. Survey data from 350 observations was used to meet the objectives of the study. Descriptive
statistics was employed for analysis. It is found that most owners prefer sharecropped over fixed rent
whereas tenants prefer fixed arrangement over sharecropped. However, land owners were the final
decision maker in rental arrangement choice. The final decision maker in crop choice is also land
owners. These results are manifestation of existence of unequal power in the market. It is hardly
possible to get a market for more productive lands and lands located near to owners’ resident. Lack of
oxen was the main reason for owners to rent-out their land followed by lack of labor and other inputs.
The market for oxen is uncommon but there is an exchange of oxen with human labor among
relatives.But the barter exchange rate is different from the market exchange rate.. An exchange of
farmer with other labor service is common. The rate of exchange is one to one even if the wage of
farmers is higher than the wage of other labor services. These revealed the existence of factor market
imperfection.Frequent reallocations of land and providing access to credit for input are important to enhance the performance of the sector.
