lowest administrative units (cells) with a coordinating role in the delivery of public services.<sup>5</sup> Three enumeration areas were selected randomly from each sector and 12 households were then chosen randomly per enumeration area. The distribution of the sample, together with the boundaries of the country’s main regions, is illustrated in figure 1. In addition to land characteristics, detailed information was collected on inputs and outputs to compute revenue and profit at plot level and on households’ demographics, resource endowments, and participation in land, credit and other markets.

Plot-level data on labor and non-labor inputs and output from crop production are for the March-August 2010 agricultural season. Plot size measures are based on owner’s estimates.<sup>6</sup> Appendix figures 1 and 2 illustrate that Rwandan farms are, with a mean of 0.37 ha (or a median of 0.17 ha) and a maximum of about 2 ha, small by global standards with most plots smaller than 0.25 ha. To control for unobserved plot-level heterogeneity, we use subjective information on plot characteristics including soil type and topography as well as self-reported land values. After dropping plots that were either temporarily left fallow or lacked information, we are left with a sample of 7,477 plots in 3,080 households.<sup>7</sup> Furthermore, to prevent them from confounding our analysis, we exclude some 15% of rented plots from the analysis.<sup>8</sup> Household-level descriptive statistics displayed in table 1 point towards clear differences between successive terciles of cultivated area the significance of which, measured by a simple t-tests, is indicated by stars. With 0.37 ha on average, own cultivated area ranges between 0.05 ha for the bottom and 0.88 ha for the top tercile.<sup>9</sup> Owing to the 1994 genocide, the incidence of female headship is high, at 27%. Female headed households are more prevalent in the South (32%) and more likely to cultivate smaller areas; some 33% of those in the bottom but only 20% in the top tercile are female headed. Smaller farmers have lower secondary education and family labor endowments and are somewhat younger than large ones, possibly due to accumulation over the life-cycle. Variations in crop mix by size are less pronounced though large farms have slightly less land under grain or vegetables and more under tubers or tress.

Structural similarities notwithstanding, variable input use varies markedly across farm size groups. With about 450 days/ha, labor input is well above that of neighboring countries (Larson _et al._ 2012).<sup>10</sup> Labor intensity varies significantly with farm size: small farmers use almost four times as much own labor per

> 5 Areas where the regularization program had already started by the time of data collection were dropped from the frame, implying that Kirehe district in Eastern Province and Rubavu district in Western Province, as well as Kigali city were excluded.

> 6 While this may lead to some measurement error (Lamb 2003), measurement by GPS was not an option in light of the small plot sizes which, with standard GPS receivers’ limited precision, could have been measured only with large errors (Carletto _et al._ 2011). GPS readings were taken for each plot’s centroid and the cultivator’s residence to provide information on plots’ location relative to each other and the homestead.

> 7 Plots were dropped because of unspecified response for crop type (3%), missing quantity of output, lack of prices or conversion factors for nonstandard units (4%), or because they were left temporarily fallow (4%) in the season under consideration.

> 8 The fact that they are operated under cash rent reduces the risk of confounding size- and tenancy-related factors and substantive conclusions for the sample including these plots are indeed are almost identical as can be verified from results for the expanded sample in the separate supplementary appendix.

> 9 As shown in the supplementary appendix table 1, there is little variation across farm size groups in the extent of land rental market participation: on average nearly 31% of the households rented in land during the season under consideration.

> 10 Average amounts of labor used on maize plots are about 310, 157, 116, and 106 d/ha in Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, respectively.

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