Effect of farmers attitude to agriculture on agronomic management of banana plantations in Bunyangabu, Isingirio and Nakaseke districts
Abstract
Banana yields in Uganda remain low despite the availability of appropriate technologies and
their dissemination through various government programmes and projects. One of the major
reasons to this might be farmers‟ attitude to agriculture. The following study was conducted
to assess the impact of farmers attitude towards agriculture on banana agronomic
management and fresh bunch weights in districts of Bunyangabu, Isingiro and Nakaseke. A
survey approach was used. Banana growing areas in the mentioned districts were chosen for
sampling banana farmers. A total of thirty farms (10 farms per district) were purposively
selected basing on the criterion that they had banana fields. A questionnaire was used to
collect household biographic and socioeconomic data on crop management. The data
estimating mat area and fresh bunch weight were collected from the banana fields of the
sampled farms. Other data included weed height and mulch depth. The data were subjected to
Chi square tests, multivariate analysis and analysis of variance (unbalanced design). It was
found that farmers attitude to agriculture ranged from absolute negative to mixed positive.
The sampled farmers fitted in three clusters. Cluster 1 had farmers who were pessimistic
about agriculture, while those in Cluster 3 were optimistic about agriculture. Cluster 2
farmers were intermediate between those in Cluster 1 and 2. Cluster 1 farmers were mainly
men ((2 = 4.812; Sig. = 0.028) and the most educated (11 years of formal education), while
those in Cluster 3 were mainly women and the least educated (5 years of formal education).
Those in Cluster 2 were the youngest (30 years and below). Those in Cluster 1 had the tallest
weeds (16 cm) in their banana fields but applied the most manure (8 t ha-1) and produced the
biggest bunches (20 kg) despite using the smallest mat area (4.9 m2mat-1) compared to those
in Cluster 3. It was concluded that even though there were distinct differences in attitude
towards farming as a way of life, this was overridden by other factors, possibly resource
endowment, in the management of banana fields. It was recommended that policy
interventions be designed to ensure farmers have a larger share of the profits from
agricultural produce and that further studies with a larger sample space be conducted to
verify the findings of the current study.