Analysis of Factors Influencing Market Participation of Smallholder Bean Farmers in Nyanza District of Southern Province, Rwanda

Abstract

Rwanda remains trading very low volume of beans inside the country and across borders thereby becoming unable to meet national and international demands. This is exacerbated by low market participation of bean growers. This study assessed factors that influence market participation and extent of participation among bean growers in Nyanza district. Probit model was used to analyze the factors influencing market participation among bean growers while the extent of market participation was analyzed using Tobit model. The probit results indicated that factors that positively and significantly influenced the probability of farmers to participate in output market were bean quantity produced, market experience, and access to credit while factors that negatively and significantly influenced market participation decisions included distance to nearest market, age and access to off-farm activities. Tobit results revealed that factors that were found to have positive statistical significant impact on the extent of market participation were bean quantity produced, marketing experience and selling price. Contrary to earlier expectation, land size was found to have negative significant impact on the quantity of bean marketed. This is possibly an indication that the increased household's participation in output market is a function of farm productivity too.

Folk taxonomy and traditional uses of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) landraces by the sociolinguistic groups in the central region of the Republic of Benin

“…Indeed, several studies have shown that women are more involved in the common bean trade [ 45 , 66 , 67 ]. The significant increase of commercial use of common beans with increasing informant age was contrary to the results of Mbitsemunda and Karangwa [ 68 ] which found that age negatively and significantly influenced common bean commercial use. Similarly, Birachi et al [ 69 ] indicate that younger farmers are more likely marketing beans than older farmers.…”

Adoption of ICT-based Information Sources and Market Participation among Smallholder Livestock Farmers in South Africa

“…The farmer's age was found to be significant, though negatively correlated to market participation. This finding is supported by other studies such as [34][35], where significant negative relationships between age and market participation were reported, and contrasts with the view of [36], which considers age as an enabler of market participation. These sources allude to risk aversion and conservative attitudes among older farmers, against the market-enthusiasm exhibited by younger farmers, to elucidate the negative correlation between age and market participation among some farmers.…”

“…This position is also supported by [8], where the explanatory variables jointly influenced the extent of market commercialization. Other relevant studies where combinations of variables were identified as influencing market participation decisions, either positively or negatively, among surveyed smallholder farmers include [23,35,40] and also in [56].…”

Adoption of ICT-Based Information Sources and Market Participation among Smallholder Livestock Farmers in South Africa

“…The farmer's age was found to be significant, but negatively correlated to market participation. This finding is supported by other studies such as [46,47], where significant negative relationships between age and market participation were reported, and contrasts with the view [48] that age is an enabler of market participation. These authors allude to risk aversion and conservative attitudes among older farmers versus the market-enthusiasm exhibited by younger farmers to elucidate the negative correlation between age and market participation among some farmers.…”