Abstract
<span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"></span><p>Vegetables as a group of horticultural crops are important for their contribution as an income support to a large proportion of the rural households. However, enhancing vegetable farmers to reach markets and actively engage in the markets is a key challenge influencing vegetable production in Swaziland. The perishable nature of vegetables necessitates effective marketing channels. The aim of this paper was to investigate factors affecting farmers’ choice of marketing channels using survey data gathered during the 2011 production season. Data were collected from 100 randomly selected vegetable farmers. Descriptive and multinomial logistic regression analyses were used. The results indicated that age of the farmer, quantity of baby corn produced and level of education were significant predictors of the choice to sell vegetables to NAMBoard market channel instead of selling to other-wholesale market channel. The age of the farmer, distance from production area to market, membership in farmer organization and marketing agreement were significant determinants of the choice to use non-wholesale market channel over other-wholesale market channel. It is therefore important to promote collective action as an institutional vehicle for linking farmers to agribusiness supply chains. Farmers should establish networks since they aid in sharing knowledge, farmers can improve produce grades as required by market.</p><span style="font-family: Times New Roman; font-size: small;"><br /></span>
Highlights
Vegetable production provides a source of income for the small holder farmer as well as an important source of food security for the people of Swaziland, thereby reinforcing the overall development of poverty reduction goals (Heinemann, 2002)
The results indicated that age of the farmer, quantity of baby corn produced and level of education were significant predictors of the choice to sell vegetables to NAMBoard market channel instead of selling to other-wholesale market channel
The results of the Cox and Snell R2 show that 53% of the variation in the choice of marketing channel was a result of the independent variables
Summary
Vegetable production provides a source of income for the small holder farmer as well as an important source of food security for the people of Swaziland, thereby reinforcing the overall development of poverty reduction goals (Heinemann, 2002). The act of parliament Number 13 of 1985 established the National Agricultural Marketing Board (NAMBoard). This Board was established to promote marketing of important agricultural products including horticultural products (Sithole and Grenoble, 2010). The impact of this market structure has been limited since vegetable farmers complain of being offered low prices for their produce (NAMBoard, 2011). This reduces their incentive to participate in economic transactions and result in subsistence rather than market-oriented production systems as a result farmers selling their produce directly to final consumers and private traders at rural or urban markets, as opposed to abiding by their contracts with NAMBoard (NAMBoard, 2011)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
