Access to improved social services by vanilla farmers in Ntenjeru subcounty, Mukono district.

Abstract

Vanilla is one of the recently adopted nontraditional cash crops in Uganda however, it faces a poverty of research and extension so as to address the pros and cons associated with it. Vanilla has exhibited a spontaneous trend in earning juicy incomes to vanilla farmers of late, never the less, there are still few participants in vanilla growing across Uganda. The specific objectives of the study included; to determine socio-economic characteristics of vanilla farmers, to assess vanilla farmers’ access to better health services, to assess vanilla farmers’ access to improved education services for their children, to assess vanilla farmers’ access to other social amenities such as transport means, type of housing, meals observed a day and access to financial institutions and lastly to assess the status of vanilla farmers in vanilla farming line. A total of 30 vanilla farmers were obtained usingtheSlovin’s formula, who were studied from four parishes of Ntenjeru Sub County Mukono district.Respondents were purposively selected and systematic sampling method was used. A questionnaire was used as a primary data capturing tool implemented through oral interviews and observation. The data was cleaned and entered into SPSS 21.0 and then analyzed using descriptive statistics.Majorityof the vanilla farmers had completed primary level of education with average of eight years in school and most of the respondents were farmers by main occupation.About 70% of vanilla farmers access private hospitals most. The results also showed that most of the vanilla farmers educate their children from Private sponsored schools which are proven to deliver better quality education services as compared to Government Funded schools.Majority of the vanilla farmers reported high access to better other social services such as safe water, type of housing, sources of energy for lighting and cooking, transport means, communication means and financial institutions’ access. Majority of the farmers were willing to continue in vanilla farming given the juicy vanilla incomes realized from vanilla. However, the major challenge reported in vanilla farming was the rampant vanilla theft when vanilla beans are still in the field.Thus, more research and extension is needed to be incorporated in vanilla production to attract more participants in vanilla growing from an informed point of view.