Examinando por Autor "Jinga, Memory Varaidzo"

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    Effects of tobacco contract farming on the welfare of farmers in centenary district, Mashonaland central province, Zimbabwe.
    (Universidad EARTH, 2019-12) Jinga, Memory Varaidzo; Wünscher, Tobias
    Tobacco production builds the basis of the Zimbabwean economy and since 2004, some farmers are involved in tobacco contract farming in addition to the long existing auction system. The contract farming system (CFS) substantially increased national sales and total tobacco exports since its inception. However, does this system influence the welfare of the small scale farmers? Studies have been done to assess the effects of tobacco farming and the CFS in particular. In a nutshell, there is evidence for the CFS to diversify crops, alleviate poverty, increase harvest volume and increase total income as compared to non-CFS. There is no clear evidence though on how contract farming induces these welfare enhancing effects. Based on personal field observations I hypothesized that diversion of contract dependent input supplies to crops other than tobacco at least partially explains welfare increases. To test this hypothesis, data from 126 contracted and non-contracted farmers in Mukwengure Ward, Zimbabwe, was collected. The great majority of farmers responded not to divert inputs supplied by CFS. Thus, based on the available data the formulated hypothesis has to be rejected. However, there is a reason to believe that the farmers’ responses do not reflect actual behavior because input diversion represents a contract violation and thus affirmative responses are assumed to risk the farmers’ livelihood. Also, the registered responses do not coincide with personal field observations. The data allowed an evaluation of the welfare effects of contract farming using multiple linear regression analysis and a set of six alternative non-income welfare indicators, hypothesizing positive effects. The results show no robust effect that the CFS positively influences the welfare of small-scale farmers. There is, however, a general consistency with the expected effects of socio-economic control variables, thus confirming the overall quality of data. In order to test the effects of input diversion future studies will have to identify alternative ways to determine farmer behavior.