This paper examines the relationship between smallholder commercialisation and rural household welfare. Employing a comprehensive three-wave panel dataset of smallholder maize farmers in Ethiopia, we find a positive association between commercialisation and household income which translates to wealth endowments through asset ownership and accumulation. We also show that commercialisation is associated with poverty reduction by reducing the prevalence of income poverty and the poverty gap. Deep diving into who benefits most from commercialisation, we find that agricultural commercialisation is inclusive and benefits all households. However, the greatest welfare gains accrue to income-poor households, suggesting some potential for reducing rural inequality. These insights support existing evidence that smallholder commercialisation is pro-poor and could be a significant entry point for stirring income growth and development in rural areas. Consequently, supporting poor and marginalised farmers with resources needed to boost agricultural production and commercialisation are relevant steps in the right direction of ensuring integrated rural development.

中文翻译：

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小农商业化和农村家庭福利：来自埃塞俄比亚的面板数据证据

本文研究了小农商业化与农村家庭福利之间的关系。利用埃塞俄比亚小农玉米农的综合三波面板数据集，我们发现商业化与家庭收入之间存在正相关关系，家庭收入通过资产所有权和积累转化为财富禀赋。我们还表明，商业化通过减少收入贫困的发生率和贫困差距与减贫相关。深入探讨谁从商业化中受益最大，我们发现农业商业化具有包容性，惠及所有家庭。然而，收入贫困家庭的福利收益最大，这表明减少农村不平等具有一定的潜力。这些见解支持了现有证据，表明小农商业化有利于穷人，并且可能成为刺激农村地区收入增长和发展的重要切入点。因此，向贫困和边缘化农民提供促进农业生产和商业化所需的资源是确保农村综合发展正确方向的相关步骤。