ABSTRACT
In Mali, the agricultural sector occupies about 80% of the population and contributes to around 33% of the country’s GDP. The rural population represents about 60% of the Malian population and 33 % of the population live under the poverty threshold. The agricultural sector which employs the largest population is dominated by smallholder farmers who have limited access to production resources such as agricultural inputs and agricultural information and marketing activities. Consequently, smallholder farmers fail to achieve high productivity and hence have low incomes. To relax these constraints, smallholder farmers are encouraged to join farmer groups where stakeholders could easily get access to them and therefore implement mechanisms that can help them to improve their productivity and at the same time their livelihood. For example, during the implementation of the Millennium Challenge Program in Mali, the cooperative approach was used to reach smallholder farmers through their Farmer- Based Organization. This study highlights the effect of farmer-based organization on maize farm productivity in OHVN zone in Mali using a cross-sectional data from 405 maize farmers in this area. Descriptive statistics was used to characterize farmers in the study. The maximum- likelihood binary logit was used to examine the factors that influence maize farmers’ decision to participate in maize farmer-based organization in OHVN zone. Then, the effect of maize farmer-based organization on productivity was analysed using the augmented Cobb Douglas production function approach. The constraints that maize farmers faced in agricultural production in the study area were also analysed. The logistic regression result shows that access to fertilizer, access to credit, access to extension service, age of farmer, access to improved seeds, education, and incomes (farm and non-farm) positively influence farmers’ decision to join maize FBO. From the productivity analysis, it was found that the maize FBO membership positively influences the maize farm productivity. Other variables such as access to improved seeds, access to extension service and education have also a significant positive relationship
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with the maize farm productivity. The constraints assessment indicates that the level of support from government is low and the availability of fertilizer and the access to it are limited. Based on these results, the study concludes that the likelihood of farmers to join FBO increases by the expected access to fertilizer, credit, improved seed and extension services by being a member of an FBO. Farmers who belong to maize FBO are found to be more productive relative to those who are not members. The key recommendation of the study is that the government, NGOs, and other stakeholders should put emphasis on the organizational level of farmers and the operationalization of the FBOs and encourage the participation of small-scale farmers in FBO since the FBO membership has a significant effect on the productivity level of farmers. Since the expectation of farmers to access resources through FBO encourage them to join FBOs, the government, NGOs, and other stakeholders should make available fertilizers, improved seed and extension services whilst financial institutions should guarantee the access to credit through farmer-based organizations. Finally, the government and stakeholders should increase the level of support and/or make sure that the supports provided reach small-scale farmers.
