Farmer’s attitude towards governance in producer organizations in Lwebitakuli Sub-County Sembabule District.
Abstract
Uganda is one of those countries with a long history of such farmer groups and these groups
remain central to the agriculture transformation process. Northern Uganda had the highest
percentage of membership to farmer groups at about 12% with males reporting a higher
percentage of membership than female farmers, followed by the Western region with about 9%,
followed closely by the Eastern region at about 8%, then the Central Uganda had the least
percentage of membership to a farmer groups at only 6% with only a slight percentage difference
between male and female membership.As the international agenda places greater weight on food
security, sustainable development and climate change andattitude towards producer
organizations are increasingly recognized as central players.
The study was conducted in Lwebitakuli Sub County in Sembabule District.The climate in
Sembabule is warm, humid and overcast.Agriculture is the mainstay of the district economy. A
cross sectional research design was used to examine attitude towards membershipand
governance in producer organizations Lwebitakuli Sub Countyin Sembabule District. The
sample included 35 women and 35 men that were purposively selected from Lwebitakuli Sub
County. In this particular study, both women and men were defined as individuals above the age
of 18years.
Study results revealed that majority of the respondents were married, aged between 31 and 50
years and all respondents had attained some level of education. The results further show that the
majority of men join producer organizations in Lwebitakuli Sub County because they want to get
accessible market for their produce while most of the women join producer organizations in
Lwebitakuli Sub County because of the desire to access credit. The results from the study
indicated that gender significantly predicts membership in producer organizations since P>0.05
(0.058>0.05). The results further indicated that gender does not significantly predict attitude in
producer organizations. The regression results further showed a statistically significant positive
relationship at (at 5 percent level of significance) between the age,income level and joining
producer organizationsin this study since its P-value is less than 0.05.
The study therefore recommends that there should be efforts to main stream gender through
formulation of pro gender- policies. This involves formulating policies and programs that
ix
provide women’s access to production resources and those that contribute to gender-just social
and economic transformation