What determines membership to farmer groups in Uganda: Evidence from the Uganda Census of Agriculture 2008/09
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Date
2012-05Author
Okoboi, Geofrey
Mwaura, Francis
Adong, Annet
Type
ArticleLanguage
enMetadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Farmer groups have returned to the policy agenda of many developing countries because of
their attractiveness as facilitators and accelerators of technical and economic change in rural
areas and as potential avenues for mobilizing farmers around a common objective especially in
the delivery of services and formulation of policies that support agriculture development. In
Uganda, the government and development agencies are targeting farmer groups as the vehicle
for agricultural development in the country. Despite this significance of farmer groups in the
policy agenda little is known on the level of membership and the factors influencing the
decision of farmers to join these groups. Using the Uganda Census of Agriculture 2008/9 data,
the study reveals that nationally, membership to groups is low at 9 and 16 percent amongst
individual farmers and agriculture households respectively. Northern Uganda had the highest
level of membership followed by Western Uganda. The Central region had the least
membership. Farmer characteristics that influenced membership to groups were found to be:
age, gender, marital status, major activity and education achievement. Distance to extension
services was a major factor influencing membership to groups in addition to distances to the to
all year gravel road for some regions. To increase membership to farmer groups, government
and development agencies need to provide more time and resources to group formation with
targeting directed towards illiterate farmers and those far away from extension workers. The
use of the local language in publicity materials is also important in ensuring participation among
the illiterate. Overall, there is a need for concerted efforts by all institutions supporting groups
to ensure that groups’ approach succeeds in improving access to agricultural technologies and
ensuring that noticeable outcomes are achieved for them to attract more farmers like the out
grower schemes in Ghana. Other groups based factors including governance, capacity in
knowledge, resources and sustainability should be enhanced as it will motivate the more riskaverse
farmers to join the groups.
Citation
Adong, Annet, Francis Mwaura, and Geofrey Okoboi. "What determines membership to farmer groups in Uganda? Evidence from the Uganda Census of Agriculture 2008/09." 2012 Conference, August 18-24, 2012, Foz do Iguacu, Brazil. No. 126774. International Association of Agricultural Economists, 2012.Publisher
Department of Geography and Environmental Studies