Adoption of Improved Seeds and Market Participation of Family Farms: The Case of Maize Cultivation in Cameroon

Abstract

In most countries of the world, the rural areas is that which is essentially covered of poor. This fact, the fight against poverty in the rural areas is a major challenge for development actors. One of the ways to improve the living conditions of rural people is to further promote the commercial transformation of agriculture, the source of their livelihood, by encouraging them to participate in the markets for agricultural goods. To this end, the adoption of improved agricultural technologies is a lever on which this struggle can be based. This paper assesses the impact of improved maize seed adoption on market participation of Cameroonian Small Farmers. The data are from a sample of 160 adopters and 99 non-adopters of improved maize seed, result from an investigation carried out within the framework of the project of Reinforcement of the Partnerships of the Agronomic research in Cameroon and prepared by the Agricultural Institute of Research for the Development. We use the comparison of means test for the quantities of maize sold and the gamma generalized linear regression model. The result of the test reveals that adopters of improved maize seed have on average 0.065 ton of maize quantity sold moreover than non-adopters. As for the result of the model, it shows that improved maize seeds have a positive and significant impact on market participation. In other words, the results show that the quantity of maize for sale increases by 90.3% for the Farmers that adopt improved maize seed and 89.2% for those do not adopt it. The Cameroonian government must implement policies that make improved maize seeds available to farmers, followed by training in the new agricultural practices and policies for the actual development of road infrastructures to serve the markets.