Evidence contradicting the usual negative relationship between farm size and productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) casts doubt on the viability of a smallholder-led development strategy. This paper examine the relationship between farm size and total factor productivity by employing a Cobb-Douglas production and survey data from mainland Tanzania. Two important contributions are highlighted: (1) examine relationship over a wide range of planted maize fields and (2) evaluate the association between farm size and total factor productivity efficiency across maize cropping systems. The regression results indicate positive relationship between farm size and TFP across maize cropping systems defined as maize-pure stand, maize-mixed with legumes and maize-mixed with non-legumes. Besides farm size, household size, field slope, source of water and measurement errors, significantly influenced TFP across maize cropping systems. The positive relationship between farm size and TFP implies that sustainable agro-industrial development can be realised through promoting both farm size categories. In addition, sustainable supply of raw materials for agro-based industries will largely depend on both increase in productivity and farm sizes. However, speeding up the process of formalizing land tenure and providing in-depth advice on suitable husbandry practices will improve land productivity and consequently enhance aggregate factor productivity of maize.

Keywords: Farm size, productivity, maize-cropping systems, agro-industrials, Tanzania.