Factors affecting participation of small scale farmers in contract farmining in Zambia's Lusaka District
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Date
2012
Authors
Mwale, Brown
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Zambia
Abstract
This study was carried out to assess the factors that affect the participation of small scale farmers in contract farming. The study was done in Lusaka district in the Zambia's Lusaka province. The objective of the study was to identify the specific factors affecting participation, to find out the social, cultural and institutional factors affecting participation and to determine the extent to which each factor affects participation.
The study was conducted using a structured questionnaire and research of different literature on the topic. Descriptive statistics were generated using SPSS and the regression model was run in
STATA.
A Probit regression model was chosen because of its ability to determine the effects of variables on the probability of farmer participation. A Probit model is a type of regression where the dependent variable can only take two values, for example married or not married. This model is most often estimated using standard maximum likelihood procedure, such an estimation being called a Probit regression
The findings reveal that factors that affect participation include household head education(p-value = 0.0354), off-farm income (p-value = 0.0041), marital status (p-value = 0.0232) and number of household members supplying agricultural labour(p-value = 0.0024).
It is therefore recommended that contract farming arrangements should be extended to all farmers irrespective of farmer scale of production. This will improve productivity and profitability of small scale farmers especially. Also, government should put in place incentives to encourage both farmers and agribusiness firms to enter into contract farming arrangements.
Description
Student Project Report
Keywords
Agricultural contarcts-Lusaka, Zambia