Effect of market information quality, sharing and utilisation on the innovation behaviour of smallholder pig producers

Abstract

Although pig farming can accelerate Uganda’s economic development, the value chain is undeveloped with poorly organized informal markets. Buyers take advantage of farmers paying low prices, pointing to the poor quality of pigs and pork. Farmer innovation can remedy this situation by enabling farmers to reduce costs, improve pig productivity and quality of pigs and pork. Leveraging farmer innovation behaviour calls for appropriate agricultural information. However, the effect of market information quality, sharing, and utilization on the innovation behaviour of pig producing farmers is not fully known. This study sought to determine the effect of information quality, sharing, and utilisation on the innovation behaviour of pig producing farmers in Northern Uganda. A cross-section survey of 239 respondents selected through multiple stages of purposive and random sampling was done. Data were analysed by Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The results show that information quality contributes significantly to innovation behaviour directly (β = 0.247; P < 0.01) as well as indirectly through the partial mediation of information utilization (β = 0.176; 95% CI = 0.040∼0.349). Therefore, interventions that seek to enhance smallholder farmer innovation should provide quality information and support farmers to utilise it.