Factors Affecting Smallholder Farmers Research Articles

Evaluating the Influence of Socioeconomic Factors on Smallholder Farmer's Social Media Adoption in the Nkomazi Local Municipality, Mpumalanga Province

Social media has the potential to provide enhanced and faster measures of disseminating agricultural information to smallholder farmers. This study investigated socioeconomic characteristics encompassing demographic factors affecting smallholder farmers' adoption of social media. The study focused on varying livestock and crop smallholder farmers, including cattle, goats, maize, sugarcane, and leguminous crop producers. A cross-sectional survey was employed to collect the data using a structured questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and a Binary Logistic Regression was used to analyse the data. The sample size was 217 smallholder farmers. The results revealed that age, level of education, annual farming income, and cooperative membership were statistically significant (p < 0.05) in social media adoption. The study findings show that skills and training in ICT increase the probability of adopting social media, and the socioeconomic characteristics of smallholder farmers influence its adoption. The study concludes that stakeholders such as local government must improve smallholder farmers' basic literacy and skills in digital technology. It further recommends that policymakers formulate policies that provide the necessary infrastructure and supporting inputs such as open access internet, cell towers, and cooperative social media platforms that allow for interactive interactions with relevant stakeholders that provide advisory services.

Smallholder Sesame Producers’ Adaptation Decisions to Climate Change and Its Determinants in Western Ethiopia

The agricultural sector remains the main source of livelihood for rural communities in Ethiopia, but the challenge of changing climate continues to pose a serious threat to its development. This study investigated factors affecting smallholder farmers’ decisions to adopt adaptation options to climate change in West Ethiopia using data collected from 400 sampled households. The Rainfall Satisfaction Index and Multinomial Logit Model were used to analyze farmers’ exposure to climate variability and factors that shape farmers' adaptation strategies. The findings of the study showed that the majority of farmers are experiencing high exposure to climate change both in terms of variable rainfall and rising temperature. In response, to adapt to the impact of climate change farmers were participating in agronomic practices, livelihood diversification, soil and water conservation, and small-scale irrigation as the dominant adaptation options. It is also observed that adopting agronomic practices was significantly impacted by social capital, crop failure experience, and access to early warning. Gender of the household, education, and livestock ownership were found to have a negative relationship with livelihood diversification. The study further revealed that soil and water conservation measures are positively affected by perception of temperature increment, exposure to early warning systems, and larger size of cultivated land. In addition, the adoption of small-scale irrigation was significantly influenced by access to credit, social capital, and the educational status of household heads. Consequently, the result implies that programs and policies designed to curb the calamities of climate change should emphasize creating effective early warning systems to increase farmer awareness, reach farmers with effective microfinance institutions, and encourage farmers’ ties to many social cooperatives.

Factors affecting smallholder farmers’ local knowledge-based adaption to build resilience in Wolaita zone, Ethiopia

This study aims to identify factors affecting local adaptation strategies smallholder farmers are practising to adapt multiple stresses. Primary data were collected from 400 randomly sampled households from six districts of Wolaita zone by face-to-face interviews, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. Survey data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. A binary logit model was employed to identify factors affecting smallholder farmers’ local adaptation strategies. A total of 15 explanatory variables, identified from relevant empirical literature, was included in the binary logit model to assess their relationship to the dependent variable – households’ decision to employ various local adaptations. The study found that eight of the explanatory variables such as age, farmland size, livestock owned, income, distance to market, extension agent visist, participation in the local organizations, and agro-ecology significantly influenced local adaption strategies. Additionally, qualitative data from focus group discussions and key informant interviews showed that the role and use of local adaptation have been ignored and marginalized. This study suggests the government should recognize the importance of local knowledge, multiple stakeholders should participate to enhance smallholders’ adaptabilities, interdisciplinary research is required, and communities should be supported to share their knowledge to build synergies between different knowledge systems.

Factors Affecting Smallholder Farmers' Adoption of Soybean Production Technologies in Kondala District Oromia Western Ethiopia

This study examines on the adoption and intensity of soybean production technology in the Kondala district. A two-stage sampling procedure was followed to select the sample households for the study. The study is based on primary data collected from 185 sample-selected households. Four rural kebeles were selected by using simple random sampling. The semi-structured interview schedule was developed, for collecting the essential quantitative data for the study and secondary data were used as additional data sources. Descriptive statistics and the Tobit model were used to analyse the data. This study also identifies soybean production technologies such as recommended seeding rate, recommended fertilizer applications, land allocation. The result of the descriptive statistics showed that the majority of farmers 57.3% were adopters and the remaining 42.7% were non adopters. In terms of land allocation and use of technologies there was a statistical significance difference in technology usage between adopters and non-adopters. The Tobit model results indicated that household ages, education level, farm experience, membership in cooperatives, access to agricultural inputs, participation in non-farm activities, and frequency of extension contact positively and significantly influenced the adoption and intensity of the use of soybean technologies. Whereas, distance from the market centre showed, a negative relationship with the adoption and intensity of adoption of soybeans production technology. The overall finding of the study underlined the high importance of institutional support in the areas of extension; membership in cooperatives and market to enhance the adoption of an improved soybean production package. Therefore, policy and development interventions should give emphasis to the improvement of such institutional support so as to achieve wider adoption which increases the productivity and income of smallholder farmers.

Factors Influencing the Perceptions of Smallholder Farmers towards Adoption of Digital Technologies in Eastern Cape Province, South Africa

The objective of the study was to determine the factors that influence the perceptions of smallholder farmers towards the adoption of digital technologies. A purposively selected sample of 250 smallholder farmers who were cross-sectionally surveyed from Port St Johns and Ingquza Hill Local Municipalities in South Africa was used in the study. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Attention, Desire, and Action (AIDA) model were used to analyse the data. The results showed that digital technologies were perceived to be expensive, cause a digital divide, and discouraged the use of Indigenous Knowledge even though they increased production. Positive perception towards digital technologies was associated with cattle rearing, with extreme negative perception for sheep and goat rearing. Educational level, employment status, monthly income, household size, being part of a cooperative (1% level), age, and source of income (10% level) were significant factors affecting smallholder farmers’ perceptions of digital technologies. In conclusion, there are economic, social justice, and traditional perceptions towards digital technologies by smallholder farmers, with socio-economic factors affecting the perceptions. The study recommends providing low-cost digital technologies that promote Indigenous Knowledge, which should target the youth and young farmers with less education in small households who are full-time farmers with moderate-to-high incomes and are part of farmer groups/organisations.

Factors Affecting Smallholder Farmers' Well-being: A Systematic Review

Factors Affecting Smallholder Farmers' Well-being: A Systematic Review

Factors Affecting Smallholder Farmers’ Marketing Channel Choice in China with Multivariate Logit Model

Facing the changes in China’s agricultural products marketing channel, smallholder farmers with different characteristics choose various strategies to obtain more benefits. To analyze factors affecting smallholder farmers’ marketing channel choice, we classify four types of channels—Broker Channel, Farmers’ Retailing Channel, Wholesale Market Channel, and Cooperative Channel—and inspect 14 variables based on the survey data of 317 households from four provinces. We use a principal components analysis (PCA) to simplify these 14 variables into seven common factors and a multivariate logit model to study how the factors influence smallholder farmers’ choices. We find that compared with the Broker Channel, the Farmers’ Retailing Channel is mainly affected by the logistics factor, skill factor, risk factor, and size factor; the Wholesale Market Channel is influenced by the logistics factor and age factor; and the Cooperative Channel is mainly influenced by the age factor, logistics factor, and price factor. In conclusion, the logistics factor has a significant positive effect on each channel choice, and the improvement of the market and transportation conditions has a general promoting effect.

Global and local sustainable certification systems: Factors influencing RSPO and Thai-GAP adoption by oil palm smallholder farmers in Thailand

This paper investigates the factors that influence the adoption of RSPO and Thai-GAP certification by oil palm smallholder farmers in Thailand. A random sample of 77 RSPO certified, 108 non-certified RSPO, 87 Thai-GAP certified, and 67 non-certified Thai-GAP smallholder farmers were interviewed to investigate the factors explaining the RSPO and Thai-GAP scheme adoption, respectively. The logit model was used to analyse the relationships between the adoption and the decision-making factors of the farmers. The results show that membership of farmer groups, the goal of the scheme, and trust in the scheme are the most significant factors affecting the adoption of RSPO certification. Scheme payments have a negative influence on adoption. In case of Thai-GAP, the results show the scheme payment, the image, concerns about the quality of land and water, and trust in the scheme are the most significant factors affecting the adoption. Finally, these findings suggest new factors may be attributed to several issues, including trust in the scheme, membership of farmer groups, the scheme’s goal, and trust in the scheme are the most significant. Designing and extension in influencing factors may play multiple roles in driving smallholder farmers to adopt sustainable certification schemes. This finding repeats that the usability of sustainable certification schemes in developing countries needs to be mobilised around a particular socio-cultural context. Including, understanding the factors affecting smallholder farmers’ intention to adopt Thai-GAP or RSPO certification is very important to plan and promote these schemes among other farmers and transform the current cultivation practices into more sustainable palm oil production.

Socio-economic factors affecting smallholder farmers’ willingness to adopt biodigester technology in South Africa

Being energy-autonomous has been suggested as a means of having sustainable energy in South Africa, where about 98% of electricity is derived from coal. Research has shown that biogas produced from animal wastes using a biodigester can be used as a source of renewable energy with the added benefits of a by-product called digestate, which can replace inorganic fertiliser. This study analyses the factors that influence smallholder farmers’ willingness to adopt a biodigester technology. It uses a structured questionnaire to acquire data from 80 respondents in Ngaka Modiri Molema District in North West Province, South Africa. The respondents were 30 livestock farmers and 29 farmers practising mixed farming. Five extension officers were also interviewed to establish their level of knowledge about the technology. Descriptive statistics and Fisher’s exact test were used to analyse the data. Factors such as gender, years of experience and family size were significant to willingness to adopt a biodigester. Farmers who were male and those with more years of experience were open to the idea, while those with larger families were less open to it, due to financial constraint. Overall, respondents practising mixed farming were more willing to adopt a biodigester than livestock farmers.

Effects of sustainable agricultural practices on farm income and food security in northern Ghana

The adoption of sustainable agricultural practices (SAPs) has been recommended by many experts and international institutions to address food security and climate change problems. Global support for the Sustainable Development Goals has focused attention on efforts to up-scale the adoption of SAPs in developing countries where growth in populations and incomes compromises the resilience of natural resources. This study investigates the factors affecting smallholder farmers’ decisions to adopt SAPs (improved seed, fertilizer, and soil and water conservation) and the impacts of the adoption on farm income and food security, using data collected from Ghana. Food security is captured by the reduced coping strategy index and household dietary diversity. The multinomial endogenous switching regression model is utilized to address selection bias issues. Results show that farmers’ decisions to adopt SAPs are influenced by the social demographics of the households, plot-level characteristics, extension services and locations. Adopting all three SAPs has larger positive impacts on farm income and food security than adopting single or two SAPs. Our findings advocate for policies that enhance the quality of extension service and strengthen farmer-based organizations for the wider dissemination of adequate SAP information. Farmers should be encouraged to adopt SAPs as a comprehensive package for increasing farm income and ensuring food security.

Factors affecting smallholder farmers' technical and non-technical adaptation responses to drought in Iran

Farmers adopt a range of technical and non-technical adaptation behaviors (TANAB) to alleviate the negative effects of drought. Understanding this adaptation behavior and its determinants is essential for improving adaptation capacity and promoting sustainable agriculture. In this study, we investigated the factors affecting TANAB using the Health Belief Model (HBM) as a theoretical framework. A survey was conducted of 320 farmers in Dashtestan County, Bushehr Province, southern Iran, on the shores of Persian Gulf. We used multi-stage stratified random sampling to select the research samples and applied structural equation modeling to analyze the determinants of TANAB. The findings revealed that the self-efficacy variable is the most important predictor of TANAB. As well as self-efficacy, other determinants of technical adaptation behaviors (TAB) are perceived barriers, severity, and susceptibility. Self-efficacy and cue to action were found to determine non-technical adaptive behaviors (NAB). This study indicates the differences between the determinants of TAB and NAB and emphasizes the key role of self-efficacy. The results of this study have implications for policymakers in the agricultural sector and can help in the development of interventionist policies to improve rural development in response to environmental crises. Governments and policymakers need to reinforce capacity-building potential for agricultural extension systems and adaptation training through information and communication technologies. This investment in education is critical for sustainable agricultural development and encourages farmers to adopt appropriate drought strategies aiming reducing farmers’ vulnerability.

Examining Farmers’ Resilience to Climate Change and Policy Ramifications in North-West Cameroon

Over half of the world’s population depends on smallholder farms for their daily food needs. However, high levels of vulnerability and low levels of resilience to the adverse effects of climatic variations and changes constitute major threats to smallholder farms and farmers. It is within this context that this paper assessed the levels of resilience of smallholder farmers as well as the factors affecting smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate change in north western Cameroon. A mixed research approach was adopted during data collection, and data analysis was done using descriptive and inferential statistics. It was found that climate extremes were the order of the day, and farmers perceived income level, practice of agroforestry and land accessibility as the main determinants of resilience. The main resilience option practiced by most smallholder farmers was agroforestry. Chi-square and t-test statistics showed the existence of a statistically significant difference (p<0.05) between smallholder farmers resilience to climate change and different environmental, institutional and socio-economic variables. Logistic regression coefficients showed the existence of a statistically significant cause-effect relationship (p<0.05) between farmers’ resilience to climate change and different environmental, institutional and socio-economic variables such as income level, land accessibility, credit accessibility, information accessibility and number of farms. From the foregoing, income level, land accessibility, credit accessibility, information accessibility and number of farms play a significant role towards enhancing smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate change. Policy makers therefore need to factor in these variables when crafting policies geared towards improving smallholder farmers’ resilience to climate change.

Factors Affecting Smallholder Farmers Participations in Cluster Crop Production: Evidence from Selected Districts of West Shewa Zone, Oromia National Regional State, Ethiopia

| The modern conception of agribusiness development clusters emerged in the 1960s around traditional export commodities such as coffee, cotton and cocoa. Thus, this study was initiated to describe socio-economic factors of cluster crop producers, challenges of cluster crop production, and examine factors affecting smallholder farmers’ participation decision in cluster crop production. By employing two-stage sampling techniques, data was collected from 160 farm households of selected Western Shewa zone districts, namely Ejersa-Lafo, and Bako-Tibe. Data was emanated from primary sources, which administrated by semi-structured questionnaire using personnel interview. On top of this, the focus group discussion was carried out on particular topics to supplement primary data source discussions. Both descriptive statistics and a probit regression model was employed for analysis. The descriptive statistics revealed that 127 sampled farmers participated in cluster crop production, while the remaining 33 were not. On the other hand, the result of probit model regression had shown that household-related factors such as being a male, economic dependency ratio, farmer experience, marketable surplus supply, and seed multiplication objectives were positively affecting the probability of participation decision while wealth variable like owning a large number of livestock was negatively affecting participation decision. Further, institutional service factors like the acquisition of awareness and frequency of extension contact positively affecting participation decision; however, obtaining training had a negative effect. Generally, farm household’s internal factors and external factors affecting cluster crop production. Therefore, intensive support for program implementation can be expected from the government by augmentation of stakeholder coordination to aspire to agribusiness growth.

Factors Affecting Smallholder Farmers’ Participation in Dairy Contract: Evidence from Small Holder Farmers’ of Walmara District

Factors Affecting Smallholder Farmers’ Participation in Dairy Contract: Evidence from Small Holder Farmers’ of Walmara District

Household Level Determinants of Agroforestry Practices Adoption in Rural Ethiopia

ABSTRACTAgroforestry is increasingly promoted as an economically and environmentally sustainable land use system. Understanding factors affecting smallholder farmers’ decision to adopt agroforestry technologies and intensity of adoption is thus considered critical for the development of agroforestry. This research attempts to analyze and understand why agroforestry technologies are not being taken up more by examining household level factors that could influence the adoption of agroforestry technologies. We estimate Heckman selection model using household level data collected from different regions of rural Ethiopia. Our findings show that the age of the household head, land size, tenure insecurity, and proximity to towns have a significant effect on the probability of adopting. They also show that, once adoption decision had been taken, the area devoted to agroforestry technologies is influenced by household characteristics such as gender of the household head, land size, and proximity to towns. We also identify important measures that could help promoting agroforestry technologies in rural Ethiopia. Our findings may also provide scientific evidence for other similar countries whose livelihood depends mainly on agriculture and natural resources such as forests.

Determinants of sorghum adoption and land allocation intensity in the smallholder sector of semi-arid Zimbabwe

Sorghum is important for sustainability of smallholder farmers’ subsistence, social and economic livelihoods in semi-arid and arid environments of Southern Africa. However, production of the crop has been on the decline in the smallholder communities of semi-arid Zimbabwe. The study examines factors affecting smallholder farmers’ inclination towards producing sorghum and allocating differential land proportions towards the crop. The paper uses a double hurdle estimation approach with cross-sectional survey data from 380 small holder sorghum farmers in the Mid Zambezi region. Frequency of contact with relatives, duration of receiving subsidies and the number of groups to which household members belonged had a robust influence (p<0.01) on the adoption decision. Market frequency, availability of storage facilities and the number of buyers in the market significantly (p<0.01) influenced the land allocation decision. Variables influencing the two decisions are not necessarily the same showing independence in the decisions. However, information flow from networks and conditions of market platforms remain important variables in the two decisions. It is important to decentralise sorghum markets, strengthen local networks of kinships and increase the scope of inclusive and responsive formal extension delivery systems. Storage facilities can also be developed in partnership with private players to allow for sales during market windows which generates higher returns for the small holder sorghum farmers.

English

The global forest coverage has declined from year to year due to human and natural factors. To address the problems, different rehabilitation strategies have been implemented through government and community in a coordinated manner. This study investigated factors affecting smallholder farmers’ participation in degraded forest rehabilitation at participatory forest management in Ethiopia. We used two-stage sampling procedure to select 140 sample households randomly from the district using probability proportional to size.  Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources. Tobit model was employed to analyze factors affecting smallholder farmers’ participation and the level of participation in forest rehabilitation. The findings demonstrate that livestock holding size, the benefit derived from the forest, forest cooperative membership, perception of households and access to extension services positively affect farmers participation and the level of participation; whereas distance of the forest from the home negatively affects farmers’ participation and the level of participation in forest rehabilitation. The study suggested that awareness creation, clear discussion with communities, strengthening existing benefits, creating related ones and providing more extension services, information and supports are required to improve farmers’ participation in degraded forest rehabilitation practices. Key words: Smallholder farmers, participation, forest degradation, rehabilitation, participatory forest management, tobit.

Access to bank credit by smallholder farmers in Tanzania: a case study


 
 
 Tanzania like many other developing countries is highly dependent on agriculture for income generation and job creation for its citizens. Because the sector is mainly composed of smallholder farmers, lack of finance remains the leading obstacle to development. This study seeks to determine factors that affect access to bank credit by smallholder farmers in the Mvomero District of Morogoro, Tanzania. The study used a cross-sectional design, with data being collected via the survey method. Purposeful sampling was used to obtain the respondents who fitted into the study objective. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and a logistic regression model. The Logit regression model in particular was employed to determine factors that affect smallholder farmers’ access to bank services. The study reveals that the value of assets invested in farming activities, education and gender are significant factors affecting smallholder farmers’ access to bank credit. Policy recommendations include the establishment of a government bank that would exclusively provide financial services to agriculturalists by establishing a credit guarantee scheme, and the development of new financial products by the banks that would cater to the needs of smallholder farmers.
 Key words: access, bank credit, smallholder farmers, logit regression
 
 

Rural Households Livelihood Strategies and its Impact on Livelihood Outcomes: The Case of Eastern Oromia, Ethiopia

This study analyzed the factors affecting smallholder farmers decisions to adopt livelihood strategy choices and its impact on rural households’ livelihood outcomes in the Meta district, Eastern Ethiopia during the 2016/17 production year. The data used for the study were obtained from 180 randomly selected sample households. Multinomial logit model was employed to analyze the determinants of farmers’ decisions to adopt livelihood strategies. The average effect of adoption on households’ farm incomes was estimated by using propensity score matching method. The result of the multinomial logistic regression showed that age of the household head, distance from irrigation sources, social status, soil fertility status, education level, distance from Developmental Agents (DAs) office, economical active members, soil fertility status, soil conservation and transportation services were significantly affects households’ adoption decision. Impact evaluation results showed that about 12.9, 45.2 and 41.9 percents of the sample households who using crop farming only, crop + livestock farming, and crop + livestock + off/non-farming strategies were non poor, respectively. Similarly, about 9.4, 30 and 19.4 percents of the sample households who using crop farming only, crop + livestock farming and crop + livestock + off/non-farming strategies were food secured, in that order. The estimation results provides a supportive evidence of statistically significant effect of livelihood strategies on rural households livelihood outcomes measured by food security status and poverty status. Therefore, policy makers should give due emphasis to the aforementioned variables to reduce households level food insecurity status and improve the livelihood of rural households.

An Evaluation of Climate Mitigation Adoption Technologies in Improving Rural Households‘ Livelihood Outcomes: The Case of Eastern Oromia, Ethiopia

Agricultural technologies are seen as an important route out of poverty in most of the developing countries. However, the rates of adoption of these technologies have remained low in most of these countries. This study aim at shedding some light on an evaluation of climate mitigation agricultural adoption technologies, and its contribution to rural livelihood outcomes in Gurawa district using cross sectional data collected from randomly selected 180 sample households during the 2016 crop production season. Multivariate probit and Propensity score matching was used to identify impacts of adoption technologies, and to identify factors affecting smallholder farmers‘ multiple technology adoption decisions. The results showed that the probability of adoption of agricultural technologies are influenced by several factors: family size, economical active members, education level, age of the household head, social status, soil fertility status, distance from extension office, land holding, distance to markets and distance to weather road. The impact evaluation results indicated that on average, the participation household in soil conservation has increased food security status and asset accumulation nearly by 38% and 15%, respectively, however it decreases the rate of poverty nearly by 51 percent. Use of improved seeds increased food security status and decreased poverty rate nearly by 38% and 44%, respectively. On the other hand, use of irrigation technology increased food security status and asset accumulation nearly by 23% and 31.8%, respectively, whereas it decreases the rate of poverty nearly by 29 percent. Similarly, adoption of row planting methods increased food security status and asset accumulation nearly by 28.7% and 15.5%, respectively, whereas it decreases the rate of poverty nearly by 51.5 percent. Therefore, policy makers should give due emphasis to the aforementioned variables to increase adoption technologies and improve the livelihood of the rural households.