Factors affecting the adoption of the village agent retail model among smallholder farmers in Uganda; case study: Lira district

Abstract

The study examined the factors that affected the adoption of the Village Agent Retail Model in Uganda with Lira district as the case study. The study employed a cross sectional survey design using both quantitative and qualitative research approaches. The target population was the small holder farmers of Lira district, in 3 sub-counties, Ogur, Amach and Aromo. Purposive sampling technique was applied and a self administered questionnaire as the tool of data collection and an ANCOVA binary logistic model was used. SPSS was used for data entry; STATA was used for bivariate analysis and multivariate analysis. The findings indicated a statistically significant impact of farmer group membership (odds ratio = 0.280779, p = 0.010), the impact of agricultural input handouts was not significant (odds ratio = 0.83688, p = 0.822), the results also showed a statistically significant impact of the distance from the farmer’s home and the stockist (odds ratio = 0.4063188 p = 0.003) and the impact of farmer capital was found to be statistically not significant (odds ratio = 1.02616, p = 0.694). The study concluded that farmer group membership significantly influenced the adoption of the village agent retail model; existence of projects providing agricultural input handouts no significant impact on the adoption of the model; the distance from the farmer’s home to the stockist significantly impacted the adoption of the model and farmer capital had no significant impact on adoption of the village agent retail model. The recommendations involved emphasis being put in promoting the village agent retail model amongst farming communities that are formed into groups; implementation model should be in areas where there is no presence of projects providing agricultural hand-outs and farming communities that are far away from the stockist and there should be deliberate efforts that drive at ensuring that farmers have capital.