Farm size and the quality and quantity of jobs—Insights from Nigeria

• The role of farm size in promoting economic development remains a contentious debate. • We provide the first empirical evidence on the link between farm size and the quantity and quality of jobs. • We use a matched farm-to-worker survey data from Nigeria’s labor-intensive tomato sector. • Smaller farms tend to offer more jobs per hectare (ha), while larger farms offer higher wages. • Neither larger nor smaller farms fully align with all dimensions of decent work and full employment. Debates on the role of farm size for farm productivity and economic development are longstanding in agricultural and development economics. However, the link between farm size and achieving decent work and full employment—Sustainable Development Goal 8—remains unexplored, despite many African countries facing huge unemployment challenges alongside important changes in farm sizes. This paper addresses this gap by focusing on Nigeria’s labor-intensive tomato sector and using unique primary data from a matched farm-to-worker survey. We analyze the relationship between farm size and both the quantity and quality of jobs, which has never been studied before, employing multivariate regression analysis. Additionally, we account for factors that commonly differentiate larger and smaller farms, including technology use, market arrangement, crop diversification, and the reliance on seasonal versus casual labor. Our findings reveal a trade-off: smaller farms offer more jobs per hectare, while larger farms offer better jobs (i.e., higher wages and some non-monetary benefits). We conclude that neither larger nor smaller farms fully align with all dimensions of decent work and full employment, highlighting the need for greater policy and research focus on the employment quality versus quantity dilemma.