Farmers’ perception on cotton production under liberalized market economy: a case study of eastern cotton growing area
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Date
2011
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
The objective of this study was to analyze
farmers’ perception on cotton production in
the Eastern Cotton Growing Area. Specifically, the study aimed to (i) study the status of
cotton production, (ii) establish farmers’ perception on cotton production, (iii) establish
the relationship between farmers' perception on cotton production, farm resources and
household characteristics and (iv) determine the needed changes in institutional support to
revive cotton production in ECGA. A cross section survey of 160 farmers from Morogoro
Rural and Kilosa districts using structured questionnaire was done. Secondary data were
collected from various sources. Descriptive analyses were used to describe the
respondents’ characteristics. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) was used to establish
perception index. Then, perception index was used in probit regression as dependent
variable to determine the intensity of relationship between farmers’ perception, farm
resources, and household characteristics. Results show that cotton production decreased
from 15 734kg in 2007 to 13 156kg in 2009 in Morogoro district and 21 895 kg to 6 650
kg in Kilosa district in the same years. Furthermore, 92.5% and 93.8% of respondents in
Morogoro and Kilosa districts respectively perceived that cotton production has
decreased. Also, 10.3% of land was allocated for cotton, 25.2% for maize, and 17.4% was
allocated for paddy. On establishing farmers’ perception on causes of low cotton
production; low selling price, unreliable market, lack of credit, lack of proper private
sector setup and little government involvement were found to be significant at 0.00 level.
In addition, accessibility to extension services, insecticides use and gender were found to
have significant influence on perception of farmers in both districts at P<0.01 and P<0.05
levels. Moreover, it has been found that there are significant differences in perception
between the two settings. The study found that there were problems hindering cotton
production in the study area. This included lack of reliable market, lack of processing
machines, lack of credit and inadequate extension services. This can be solved by
improving institutional support in the cotton sub-sector.
Description
Masters Dissertation
Keywords
Cotton production, Liberalized market economy