Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
obtained an estimated DHI of 0. 49-0. 69 among smallholder farmers in three regions in
Bangladesh. As shown in Table 6, non-organic farmers practiced more crop diversification
with a DH index of 0. 23 compared to organic farmers with a DHI of 0. 72. These results are
consistent with previous findings in this study measuring farmers risk attitudes and presented
in Figure 6. 8, that established that smallholder farmers in the study area tend to diversify due
to their risk averse nature and that non-organic farmers are more risk averse than organic
farmers.
According to Table 6, a total of 69. 1% of fully-certified farmers practised crop diversification
compared to 96. 8% of the non-organic farmers. A total of 81. 2% of the partially certified
farmers practised crop diversification. The common crops grown by the organic farmers are
amadumbe, potatoes, sweet potatoes and green beans while non-organic farmers grew
amadumbe, potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, maize, sugarcane, bananas, chillies and
peas.
Fully-certified
organic
Partially-certified
organic
No. Risk management strategy
Non-organic
n = 48
n = 103
n = 49
1
Enterprise diversification index (DH)
0.72
0.89
0.23
2
Practice crop diversification (% of
respondents)
69.10
81.20
96.80
3
Savings bank account (% of respondents)
60.90
48.90
46.80
4
Current level of savings (% of respondents)
less than R500
27.27
37.84
35.29
R501 - R1000
45.45
29.73
41.18
R1001 - R5000
21.21
29.73
17.65
More than 5000
6.07
2.70
5.88
5
Social networks (% of respondents)
Membership of EFO
100.00
100.00
10.00
Others (burial clubs,
stockvels
)
33.00
25.00
25.00
Table 6.
Risk management strategies used by the different farmer groups
Precautionary saving occurs in response to risk and uncertainty [44]. The smallholder farmers'
precautionary motive was to delay/minimise consumption and save in the current period due
to their lack of crop insurance markets. According to [45], the quantitative significance of
precautionary saving depends on how much risk consumers face. Whereas 60. 9% of the fully
certified farmers had savings bank accounts, only 46. 8% non-organic farmers had bank
accounts. The current level of saving in the study area was low with savings ranging from less
than R500 to over R5000 per month. The level of savings was low across all groups. Among
