Effect of market participation on household welfare among smallholder goat farmers in Botswana
Abstract
Goat farming is a major livelihood activity for most smallholder farmers in Botswana. To ensure sustainable livelihoods for these farmers, a shift from the prevalent traditional and subsistence system to a more market-oriented one is considered necessary. Market participation is widely viewed as an effective means of addressing poverty which is particularly rampant in most rural areas of Botswana and other developing countries. Little evidence is however available on the link between market participation and household welfare, especially among livestock and, in particular, small stock farmers. This paper evaluates the effect of market participation on household welfare among smallholder goat farmers. Estimating an endogenous switching regression model, the results show a positive and significant effect of market participation on household income for both participant and non-participant farmers. This effect was found to be more pronounced among the non-participants had they decided to sell. The results suggest that goat farmers should be encouraged to engage in market participation other than their traditional ways of keeping goats. This implies that existing policies and programs that increase market participation and encourage market-oriented farming should be revised in order to provide efficient and sustainable support. Furthermore, the study recommends that information on goat markets should reach rural areas where most farmers reside and are unable to access technology.
Keywords
market participation; endogenous switching regression; household welfare; smallholder farmers
References
Anang, B. T., Bäckman, S., Sipiläinen, T. (2020). Adoption and income effects of agricultural extension in northern Ghana. Scientific African, 7, e00219
Asfaw, S., Shiferaw, B. A. (2010). Agricultural technology adoption and rural poverty: Application of an endogenous switching regression for selected East African Countries (No. 308-2016-5081). Poster presented at the Joint 3rd African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE) and 48th Agricultural Economists Association of South Africa (AEASA) Conference, Cape Town, South Africa, September 19-23, 2010.
Asfaw, S., Kassie, M., Simtowe, F., Lipper, L. (2012). Poverty reduction effects of agricultural technology adoption: a micro-evidence from rural Tanzania. Journal of Development Studies, 48(9), 1288-1305.
Assefa, E. (2008). Assessment of production and marketing system of goats in Dale district, Sidama zone (Doctoral dissertation, Hawassa University).
Astatike, A. A., Gazuma, E. G. (2019). The Impact of Off-farm Activities on Rural Household Income in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia. Journal of World Economic Research, 8(1), 8-16.
Botswana, S. (2016). Annual agricultural survey report 2016. Gaborone, Botswana.
Botswana, S. (2017). Annual agricultural survey report 2017. Gaborone, Botswana.
Justus, O., Knerr, B., Owuor, G., Ouma, E. (2015). Agricultural commercialization and household food security: The case of smallholders in Great Lakes Region of Central Africa. Paper presented at the International Conference of Agricultural Economists. (No. 1008-2016-80302).
Masole, C. (2018). Economic losses and ex-post response to foot and mouth disease outbreak among smallholder beef producers in Northeast District, Botswana (Doctoral dissertation, Egerton University).
Meyer, B. D., Sullivan, J. X. (2003). Measuring the well-being of the poor using income and consumption. National Bureau of Economic Research. Working Paper 9760.
Mumba, J. M. (2019), Gendered risk attitudes and vegetable commercialization among smallholder farmers in Kilifi County. MSc Dissertation in Agriculture and Applied Economics, 99 pp.
Muricho, G., Manda, D., Sule, F., Kassie, M. (2017). Smallholder agricultural commercialization and poverty: empirical evidence of panel data from Kenya (No. 1916 2017-1364). Contributed Paper prepared for presentation at the 91th Annual Conference of the Agricultural Economics Society, Royal Dublin Society in Dublin, Ireland 24 – 26 April 2017
Olwande, J., Smale, M. (2014). Commercialization effects on household income, Poverty, and diversification: A Counterfactual analysis of maize farmers in Kenya No. 329-2016-13381, pp. Cover-page. Selected Paper prepared for presentation at the Agricultural & Applied Economics Association’s 2014 AAEA Annual Meeting, Minneapolis, MN, July 27-29, 2014.
Opondo, F., Owuor, G. (2018). The effect of cassava commercialization on household income of Smallholder Farmers in Arid and Semi-arid Land (Asal), A Case of Kilifi County, Kenya. Paper presented in the 30th International Conference of Agricultural Economists. (No. 2058-2018-5348).
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2011). How's life?: measuring well-being. Paris: OECD.
Rabbi, F., Ahamad, R., Ali, S., Chandio, A. A., Ahmad, W., Ilyas, A., Din, I. U. (2017). Determinants of commercialization and its impact on the welfare of smallholder rice by using Heckman’s two-stage approach. Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences, 18(2), 224-233.
Rakotoarisoa, M. A., Kaitibie, S. (2019). Effects of Regular Off-farm Activities on Household Agri-cultural Income: Evidence from Kenya’s Kerio Valley. Socio-Economic Challenges, 3(2), 13-20.
Richard, J. M. (2017). An assessment of determinants of farmers’ choice of dairy goat marketing channels in Meru County, Kenya (No. 634-2018-5510).
Sharma, S. P. (2014). Botswana Journal of Agriculture & Applied Sciences Leading Agriculture through Science and Innovation. Botswana Journal of Agriculture & Applied Sciences. 10(1), 24-29.
Tatwangire, A. (2011). Access to productive assets and impact on household welfare in rural Uganda. (Philosophiae (PhD) Thesis).
Tesfaye, W., Tirivayi, N. (2016). The effect of improved storage innovations on food security and welfare in Ethiopia (No. 063). United Nations University-Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (MERIT). UNU-MERIT Working Papers (ISSN 1871-9872).
Wasseja, M. M., Mwenda, S. N., Sammy, M., Josephine, J., Ochieng, P. (2016). An Empirical Analysis of Commercialization of Smallholder Farming: Its inclusive household welfare effects. Journal of economics & commerce management 1: 1-10.
Yamane, T. (1967). Elementary Sampling Theory. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall.
Zhou, S., Minde, I. J., Mtigwe, B. (2013). Smallholder agricultural commercialization for income growth and poverty alleviation in southern Africa: A review. African journal of agricultural research, 8(22), 2599-2608.
Egerton University Kenya
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3891-9453
Egerton University Kenya
Dr
Egerton University Kenya
Dr
Botswana University of Agriculture and Natural Resources Botswana
Dr
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
This journal permits and encourages authors to post items submitted to the journal on personal websites or institutional repositories both prior to and after publication, while providing bibliographic details that credit, if applicable, its publication in this journal.
