Title: Impact of social capital on agricultural productivity of rural households in Burkina Faso: propensity score matching approaches

Authors: Noufé Tiatité

Addresses: Université de Ouahigouya, 01 BP 346 Ouahigouya 01, Burkina Faso

Abstract: This work is an empirical examination of the effects of the social capital of rural households on agricultural productivity in Burkina Faso. Having at least one member of the farm household in a cooperative or agricultural organisation is used as a proxy for social capital. The study uses panel data for 16,268 farm households from 2014-2017. The nearest-neighbour, stratification, radius, and kernel methods are employed to ensure robust results. The findings show that the social capital of households improves agricultural productivity by at least 4,869 West African CFA francs per farm asset when at least one member of the household is in an agricultural cooperative. The results suggest the benefit of organising the rural world by creating agricultural cooperatives in all the country's villages.

Keywords: social capital; rural households; propensity score; matching; agricultural productivity; Burkina Faso.

DOI: 10.1504/IJARGE.2023.136666

International Journal of Agricultural Resources, Governance and Ecology, 2023 Vol.19 No.2, pp.185 - 201

Received: 21 Aug 2022
Accepted: 31 Jul 2023
Published online: 15 Feb 2024 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article