Impact of operation wealth creation on the welfare of the beneficiaries. A case study of Atutur sub-county, Kumi district
Abstract
The topic under study was “impact of operation wealth creation intervention on the welfare of the beneficiaries in Uganda;” a case of Atutur sub-county, Kumi district.
The impact of operation wealth creation program or intervention on the beneficiary’s welfare here, the researcher meant how the operation wealth creation intervention has affected the income status of the beneficiary as one measure of welfare here the researcher assessed the income of the beneficiary as average annual income generated by the beneficiary.
The researcher conducted both qualitative and qualitative and quantitative study. By qualitative study here, it means the researcher held KIIs with the sub-county agricultural officer, extension workers and the LC1 for sampled Parishes and quantitative study the researcher used questionnaires to interview the farmer beneficiaries. The sampling method used for determining the sample size was stratified sampling and a sample size of 76 with 43 males and 33 females was used in study for a case study of Atutur sub-county Kumi district.
On assessing the welfare of the beneficiary, the researcher focused on looking at factors which can affect the income of the beneficiary and the factors selected were; the type of input received, the use of agricultural technology, trainings under operation wealth creation, the sex of the beneficiary as well as the education level of the beneficiary.
Among the factors assessed, it was found that only the type of input received, the agricultural training under operation wealth creation were significant at 95% level of significance using chi-square test statistics meaning there were the only ones which affected the incomes or the welfare of the beneficiary.
In the study, the researcher found out that much as OWC programme as well as other project emphasizes on use of better and improved agricultural technologies, it was not relevant in determining the income status of the farmer beneficiaries in Kumi district.
Another finding of the study was, OWC was not achieving its target in Kumi district specifically due the following major challenges farmers faced that is to say drought since farmers depend on rain fed agriculture, pest and diseases which affected their crops (the sample diseased crops are in the appendices) and late input delivery that affected timely planting most especially seed and seedling inputs. Also, farmers lacked incomes to buy the pesticides and fertilizers due to their high prices.