Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
was performed with Maize Market Participation (INPMAIZE) as the dependent variable.
The results are presented in Table 11.4.
The regression results indicate that age of the household head, land ownership satisfaction,
farm labour availability, plough ownership and maize storage method had a strong influence
on farmers' participation in formal maize markets, at 1% significance level (Table 11.4).
Land fertility and satisfaction with land holding also showed high significance, as a factor
affecting market participation by farmers. These results are consistent with the hypothesized
expectations. Chirwa (2006) also observed that the extent of maize sales in Malawi is
positively associated with increasing land holding sizes, and that those whose maize failed
had the lowest land holding size. This is an important finding given the perception that land
reform programmes in developing countries are more instruments of political appeasement
than addressing economic and market goals.
Table 11.4. Factor variables affecting maize market participation (Survey data, 2009).
Variables
Coefficient (B)
t-value
Signiicance
0.000
*
Age
-0.28
-9.161
Marital status
-1.07
-1.667
0.104
0.000
*
Farm labour
0.19
7.812
Employment status
0.032
0.345
0.732
0.008
*
Plough
0.332
2.789
Planter
-0.02
-0.207
0.837
Land ownership
-0.039
-0.386
0.702
0.000
*
Land satisfaction
0.798
6.81
0.001
*
Need for extra land
0.003
3.56
Maize revenue
2.166
0.759
0.453
0.000
*
Maize storage method
-0.728
-7.136
Maize price setting Authority
0.55
1.126
0.268
0.000
*
Source of marketing Information
-0.579
-8.427
0.031
**
Market participation Post FTLRP
-0.147
-2.254
0.016
**
Market participation Before FTLRP
-0.191
-2.525
Market distance
-0.075
-0.739
0.465
0.001
*
Market access Support
0.332
3.448
Model summary
R Square = 0.933; Adjusted R Square = 0.896;
Durbin-Watson = 2.173; F =25.534
* Shows significance at 1% level; ** shows significance at 5% level.
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