Impact of Estate vegetable production on the welfare of employees
Date
2009
Authors
Zulu, Maureen
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Zambia
Abstract
The horticultural industry is an important sector in the economic welfare of many Zambian families. In this study, the impact of estate vegetable production on the welfare of employees in Borassus was undertaken. The general objective of the study was to determine the impact of large-scale export vegetable production on the welfare of the employees. The specific objectives were to determine the socio-economic status_of people employed on large-scale export vegetable production firms and to determine the extent to which large-scale export vegetable production has contributed to the welfare of the people employed by these firms.
The study used survey data collected using structured questionnaires fro a sample of 105 households which included 41 horticultural and 64 non-horticultural worker households. The sample was drawn using stratified random sampling and simple random sampling was used from the two strata. SPSS was used to come up with descriptive statistics and two econometric models were used. The probit model was used to determine the factors that influence participation in the industry. An income model was also used to determine the influence of participation as well other factors on income and in turn the impact of participation on welfare.
The major factors that were found to influence participation included age (p-value =0.007) and education level (p-value =0.003) of the household head and the number of children (p-value =0.089) in the household. From the income model results, participation (p-value =0.000) in the industry was found to be very significant on the incomes earned. The impact of the vegetable estate production on welfare was found to be positive.
The study recommended that future projects be carried out across the country with a larger sample size so as to get more insight on the impact of the industry on welfare.
Description
Student Project Report
Keywords
Vegetables-Zambia , Export Marketing-Zambia