Effects of poverty on rural small holder farmers in Uganda: a case study of Mugusu Town Council in Kabarole District

Abstract

Poverty in Uganda remains to be an issue of concern despite several measures that the government has taken in alleviating it. Rural farmers are one of the disadvantaged groups living under absolute poverty conditions. This study seeks to examine the effects of poverty on rural small holder farmers in Uganda a case study of Mugusu town council in Kabarole district. The research design adopted was cross sectional design where the respondents were asked only once and a follow up on the respondents wasn’t made. A questionnaire was used to collect data regarding the household income, access to financial services, ownership and land size and ease to transport produce to the market. The collected data was first processed, cleaned using Microsoft Excel 2019 and later, it was imported to Stata version 15.0 for analysis. Under the univariate analysis, a total of 150 respondents participated in the study, with 66 males (44%) and 84 females (56%). 102 (68%) earned less than 100000 and 48 (32%) earned 100000500000. 64(42.67%) easily transport their produce to the market and 86(57.33%) don’t easily transport their produce to the market. 60(40%) have access to financial services and 90(60%) don’t have access to financial services.129(86%) own 0.3-2.2 acres and 21(14%) own 2.29-4 acres.56(37.33%) have their own land,7(4.67%) have hired land,9(6%) have borrowed land and 78(52%) have family land. Under the bivariate analysis gender and household income, education and access to finance, age and access to finance, land size and type of farming, land size and household size, have a significant relationship respectively. From the multivariate analysis respondents have their own land and those that own 2.29-4 acres of land significantly affect the household income. Primary education and house size of 6-10 members also significantly affect the household income. (P=0.018, P=0.000, P=0.047, P=0.033) respectively. From this study the research paper recommended that the government should provide infrastructure like roads to communities, extensive research on diseases that affect the livestock and crops of farmers, market regulations on price fluctuations, ease access to credit facilities by lowering the interest rates, focus on building assets like provision of agricultural land and providing health care and literacy to people.