Determinants of commercial sugarcane growing in Jinja district

Abstract

The determinants of commercial sugarcane growing in the face of global change is critical to support strategies that ensure sustainable development among households. We assessed the relationship between commercial sugarcane growing and household characteristics and explore the effect of land holdings on commercial sugarcane growing of Jinja District in eastern Uganda. The main objective of the study was to analyze the determinants of commercial sugarcane growing in Uganda. The assessment was made on a sample of 120 respondents that were selected using multistage sampling from the three villages of Kakira, Masese, and Mafubira in Jinja district. The characteristics were analyzed using Stata to find out the determinants of commercial sugarcane growing. The findings revealed that there is a statistically significant relationship between commercial sugarcane growing and the mentioned characteristics i.e. Gender, Age group, Education. The study found out that male participants had the biggest percentage in the participation of commercial sugarcane growing compared to the female participate who had only 42% participants, this is because men are more powerful in owning property most especially land which makes women lag behind in participation of farming practices commercial sugarcane growing in particular. The participants were falling into the productive age of 30-39 years who have energy to work for long working hours compared to old age and those aged 20-29 who may be still in school or do not have responsibilities yet. Half of the participants in commercial sugarcane growing were secondary literates (50%) compared to other education levels since have the ability to receive, decode and understand information relevant to making innovative decisions on commercial sugarcane growing. The study recommends that there should be timely provision of agro-inputs/mechanical services to the farmers as well as sufficient Irrigation Water so as to enhance farmers’ operation, which could lead to higher yield. An effective system should be put in place where farmers should be linked with service providers and community money lenders.