Cooperative patronage: The National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi in Kasungu District
2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 27; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1080/0376835x.2010.498950
ISSN1470-3637
Autores Tópico(s)Innovation and Socioeconomic Development
ResumoAbstract This paper estimates the determinants of farmers' decisions to join a rural producer organisation, the National Smallholder Farmers' Association of Malawi (NASFAM), in Kasungu District. Data for the study were collected in June and August 2003 using household-level questionnaires and stratified random sampling, where strata were membership status and gender. Probit analysis of 250 farmers shows that off-farm sources of income, distance of the farmer's household from Kasungu District centre, age of the farmer, tobacco farming, education, household level land holding and gender determined the decision to join NASFAM. These results suggest that farmers should be informed of the potential benefits of participating in rural development efforts, and that rural communication and information infrastructure should be improved so as to reduce the costs of information access and transactions in general, if participation in organisations such as NASFAM is to be enhanced. Keywords: probit analysisfarmers' cooperativesNASFAM membershipMalawi Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank Dr Mette Wik of Norway and NASFAM in Malawi for making this study possible, and the Norwegian Government for sponsorship.
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