A statistical analysis of factors that lead to low incomes from coffee of rural areas in Uganda: a case study of Kamagwa Parish, Kyotera District

Abstract

In a study carried out to examine the factors that affect incomes from coffee in rural areas like Kamagwa village, Uganda, a questionnaire was designed and a sample of 71 farmers was obtained using simple random sampling. The data collected was processed using Microsoft Excel and later, STATA version 14.0 for analysis. In univariate analysis, there were 43 males and 28 females. The average age for the respondents was 51.41 years with the dominant highest level of education as primary education (61%). Furthermore, all the farmers used rainwater as their main source of water, used more household labor than hired labor, spend no money on pesticides and herbicides and have kibanjja land (86%). The average land area per farmer was 3.60 acres. In bivariate analysis, land area, hired labor, alternative water source and education level had a relatively significant effect on the coffee sales at a 5% significance level. From the multivariate analysis, it was revealed that increasing farmers land by 1 acre would increase coffee sales by 10%, a 1% increase in expenditure on inorganic fertilizers will increase coffee sales by 0.79%, a 1% increase in the price will increase coffee sales by 0.42% and a 1% increase in the amount of money spend on herbicides will increase coffee sales by 0.169%. Based on the results, farmers were advised to increase and land area for coffee cultivation, invest more money on inorganic fertilizers, organic fertilizers, herbicides and attend at least a secondary education.