Factors influencing crop production intention among farmers in Afgooye district, Somalia
Food aid remains one of the most common responses to emergency situations given to support lives and livelihoods in areas or region experiencing a food shortage. As of May 2018, about 2.7 million Somalis did not meet their daily food requirements, with more than half a million on the verge of...
Saved in:
| Main Author: | |
|---|---|
| Format: | Thesis |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2020
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://psasir.upm.edu.my/id/eprint/98588/1/FP%202021%2035%20UPMIR.pdf |
| Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
| Summary: | Food aid remains one of the most common responses to emergency situations given to
support lives and livelihoods in areas or region experiencing a food shortage. As of May
2018, about 2.7 million Somalis did not meet their daily food requirements, with more
than half a million on the verge of famine. They urgently needed immediate humanitarian
assistance in the form of food to keep them from falling into crisis. It was estimated that
there were 300,000 malnourished children under 5 years old, including 48,000 who were
chronically malnourished and facing high risk of illness and death. Somalia has been
facing many problems with livelihoods, climate change, epidemics, lack of agricultural
inputs, all seeming to have no end. Despite heavy speculations of the impact of food aid
on local agricultural production, there has been lack of empirical evidence on the need
to understand famers' intention to produce more food. The present study was undertaken
primarily to identify and evaluate factors influencing farmers' intention on crop
production in Afgooye district, Somalia. The study was also aimed at examining
relationships among existing factors that influence sustainable crop production. The
study was guided by an integrated conceptual framework predominantly developed from
Theory of Planned Behavior in which a structured questionnaire was used to collect data
from 400 selected respondents using multistage cluster sampling technique. An IBM
SPSS Version 23 software was employed in data analyses in which descriptive,
correlation and multiple regression analyses were applied. The descriptive results
revealed that majority of farmers were males from Somali tribe, middle age and had both
formal and informal education. Multiple regression analysis revealed that dependency,
costs of farm inputs and epidemics were factors that affected farmers’ intention towards
agricultural production. At the conclusion of the study, it was observed that epidemics,
cost of farm inputs and dependency were at moderate and high levels, respectively.
When all was said and done, the study established that intention towards crop production
among Somali farmers in the wake of food aids occurred because they were not prepared
to embrace the use of new crop production technology, nor did they envisage starting
crop production using improved technology. The study proposes that government and
donor organizations or agencies support farmers with subsidized farm inputs, control measures against major epidemics and new farming technologies with efficient
extension services, in attempts to reduce farmer’s dependency on food aid programs and
prepare them to be self-reliance in food production. |
|---|