In Zvimba District of Zimbabwe

International Journal of Scientific Research in ______Research Paper. Multidisciplinary Studies E-ISSN: 2454-9312 Vol.6, Issue.9, pp.37-42, September (2020) P-ISSN: 2454-6143

Determinants of Production of Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor) and Millet (Eleusine coracana) in Zvimba District of Zimbabwe

I. Kutyauripo1*, P. Mutombo2

1Directorate of Quality Assurance and Standards, Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development, Harare, Zimbabwe 2Kariba Redd+ Project, Carbon Green Africa (CGA), Harare, Zimbabwe

*Corresponding Author: [email protected], Tel.: +263-0712576808

Available online at: www.isroset.org Received: 26/Aug/2020, Accepted: 15/Sept/2020, Online: 30/Sept/2020 Abstract— The adverse effects of climate change are hampering maize (Sub Saharan Africa’s major staple cereal crop) production. Small grains are resilient to high temperatures and low rainfall that result from climate change. Small grains can be produced as an alternative to maize in times of climate change induced drought. However, the proportion of households that are in sorghum and millet production remains relatively lower to maize-producing households. This study sought to investigate the determinants of choice of sorghum and millet production in Zvimba District of Zimbabwe. Farming households (120) were selected from 6 wards through multistage sampling. A structured questionnaire was distributed to household heads. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse data. Binary logistic regression was used to analyse factors affecting choice of production of sorghum and millet. Results from the survey indicated that 59.2% of the interviewed farmers are into sorghum and millet production with 47.5% producing millet whilst 11.7% produce sorghum. Results of binary logistic regression indicated that age and training in small grain production significantly affect (p ≤ 0.05) the choice of producing small grains. Labour intensiveness, lack of market information, lack of certified seeds and lack of technical support were identified as the major constraints to sorghum and millet production. It was concluded that farmer’s age, agriculture extension, market information, technical support, seeds and labour influence sorghum and millet production. The results of this finding will inform African farmers and stakeholders on the challenges that need to be addressed in small grain farming as a way of adapting to the changing climate.

Keywords— climate change, millet production, sorghum production, Zvimba district

I. INTRODUCTION [7; 8]. Sorghum can be utilised as an alternative to maize in cases of maize production failures [9]. Finger millet is Southern Africa food security is under threat from the nutritious being high in calcium, iron and magnesium [6]. effects of the changes in the climate. A decline in annual However, despite all the advantages of growing millet and rainfall amount and rising temperatures over decades have sorghum as a grain cereal in times of climate change been witnessed in Southern African countries to include induced drought there is low adoption of sorghum and Zimbabwe [1;2;3]. These changes in the climate negatively millet production in the country, as the majority of affect rain fed maize production resulting in a yield decline communal farmers prefer maize to traditional small grains of 20% to 40% [1]. This decline in maize yields is a great [4]. Most farmers prefer to grow maize rather than small challenge given the situation that for countries in the South grains despite the fact that maize production is resulting in African Development Community only 6.6% of area under lower yields [10]. crop production is being irrigated [3]. According to [11] 9% and 12% of the farming households Communal farmers are facing drought due to the effects of in Zimbabwe produced pearl millet during the 2013/2014 climate change. Unpredictable rainfall patterns have and 2014/2015 farming season respectively. A proportion resulted in lower maize yields over the years thus resulting of 6% and 10% of the farming households produced finger in food insecurity in some areas in Zimbabwe [4]. Millet millet during the 2014/2015 farming season and 2015/2016 and sorghum have a potential for higher yields even in farming seasons respectively [11]. A household proportion times of low rainfall. Finger millet can be produced in poor of 21% and 28 % produced sorghum in the 2013/2014 soils under inconsistent rainfall thereby improving food season and 2015/2016 season respectively. According to security at household level even during the periods of [11] Mashonaland West had the lowest (18% sorghum, 2% drought [5; 6]. Sorghum is a drought resistant crop which finger millet and 1% pearl millet) small grain proportion of can also thrive high temperatures. It highly adapts to low households for 2015/2016 season for all the farming fertile soils, and soils with poor water holding capacities provinces in Zimbabwe. According to [12] during the

2016/17 agricultural seasons Mashonaland West had the production of sorghum and millet. The natural logarithm lowest proportion of small grain farming households (9% of the odds is the dependent variable and it is calculated as for sorghum,1% for pearl millet and 2% finger millet) in follows [16; 17]: Zimbabwe. The above information reflects that over the years Mashonaland West is one of the regions with the In [Ps/1-Ps] = β0 + β1X1s + β2X2s + β3X3s + …………+ lowest proportion of households that are into small grain βnXns. (1) production in Zimbabwe. This study investigated the factors influencing choice of sorghum and millet Where Ps is the probability of producing small grains, 1-Ps production in Zvimba District that lies in Mashonaland is the probability of not producing small grains, the West province of Zimbabwe. There is limited literature on subscript s denotes observation in the sample, β0 denotes a the constraints to traditional small grain production in the constant, β1…. βn denote regression coefficients and X1, Province of study. Section I of this paper is the …. Xn denote explanatory variables. introduction, Section II is the methodology, Section III contains the results and discussion of the study, Section IV Table 1. Binary logistic regression model explanatory variables concludes the research findings and recommends future Variable Description actions. Sex 0 if female 1 if male Age 0 if above 30 years, 1 if below II. METHODOLOGY 30 years Marital status 0 if not married, 1 if married Training in small grains 0 if not trained, 1 if trained Study Area Crop preference in terms of 0 if maize, 1 if small grains Zvimba District is located in Mashonaland West Province consumption of Zimbabwe. Zvimba district coordinates are 17° 42’ Religion 0 if Christian, 1 if African 0.00”S, 30° 12’ 0.00”E [13].The district is bordered by religion Guruve district, Mazowe district, Chegutu district, Education level 0 if formally educated,1 if not Makonde district, Kadoma district and City of Harare [14]. formally educated According to the 2012 census Zvimba district has 132 165 males and 130 855 females giving a total population of 163 III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 020. The livelihood of Zvimba district is mainly based on mining and agriculture with maize as one of the crops Demographic Information mainly grown in the district [13; 15]. Table 2. Demographic information of respondents Data Collection and Analysis Variable Percentage A quantitative research survey was carried out. Multistage Sex Male 52.5 sampling was used. Random sampling of 20 farming Female 47.5 households followed purposive sampling of six communal Age farming wards (wards 6, 7,10,11,12 and 29) of Zvimba 18-30 10.0 district. A questionnaire was designed in the structured 31-45 35.8 format to collect demographic information, small grain 46-60 31.7 (specifically millet and sorghum) production, annual Above 60 22.5 yields, farm area allocated to small grain production, Marital status reasons for not choosing small grains, major purpose for Single 6.7 small grain production and agriculture extension on small Married 66.7 grains. A pilot test of the questionnaire was conducted. Divorced 5.8 Widowed 20.8 Informed consent was sought from all the participants. The Farming experience questionnaire was distributed to household heads. 5 years and less 10.0 Frequencies and percentages were used in the descriptive More than 5 years 90.0 analysis of data. Binary logistic regression analysis using Level of education Statistical Packages for Social Scientists (SPSS) Version No formal education 12.5 20 determined factors influencing choice of small grain Primary level 26.7 farming. Binary logistic regression model was suitable for Secondary level 55.0 analysis of determinants of small grain production because Tertiary level 5.8 it is used when the dependent variable is dichotomous [16; Religion Christianity 97.5 17]. The dependent variable was small grain production African religion 2.5 and it had two options; producers of small grains represented by 1 and non-producers of small grains In this study majority of the respondents were males. represented by 0. The dependent variable (Y) denotes Majority of the farmers who participated in the study were small grain production. The independent variable (X) aged between 31 and 45. Married farmers constituted denotes explanatory variables that are listed in Table 1. majority of the respondents. Most of the respondent The binary logistic regression model estimates the effect of farmers had more than 5 years’ farming experience. Only a the explanatory variable on the probability of choosing

© 2020, IJSRMS All Rights Reserved 38 Int. J. Sci. Res. in Multidisciplinary Studies Vol.6, Issue.9, Sept 2020 few of the farmers were not Christians. Most of the farmers The results from the study indicate that 20% of the farmers in this study attained secondary level education. that are into small grain production harvest one 50kg bag followed by 18.3% that harvest two 50kg bags per season Small grain production and yields and this leads to 38.3% of the farmers harvesting between All of the farmers that were interviewed produce maize 50kg and 100kg of small grains per farming season. The among their crops. Out of the 120 interviewed households mean number of 50kg bags a household produce per year 40.8% of the households do not produce sorghum and is 1.192 bags (59.6kg). This is in contrast to [20] in which millet whereas 59.2% of the farming households are into the mean sorghum household annual output is 219.09kg sorghum and millet production. Of the small grain farming with an average of 0.35hactare annual production. An households in the district, majority (47.5%) are into finger explanation could be that the yield is influenced by the millet production whilst the minority (11.7%) are into portion of land that is allocated to sorghum and millet sorghum production. An explanation to these results can be production. Few farmers have the knowledge and access to that sorghum and millet production face challenges that improved millet varieties and this results in farmers using include high labour costs, difficulty in processing, attack landraces which might not give high yields after by quelea birds and changing food preferences [4]. production [19]. Low yields in sorghum can be ascribed to deleterious effects of pests, diseases and poor inputs [9]. From the survey 0.8% of the respondents have grown small grains for less than a year, 26.7% have grown for a A proportion of 33.8% of the small grain producing period ranging 1-5years, 11.7% for a period ranging 6-10 households always apply artificial fertiliser in sorghum and years, 8.3% for a period ranging for 11-15 years, whilst millet production, 12.7 % of the farmers do not apply 11.7% have grown sorghum and finger millet for a period artificial fertilisers at all whilst 53.5 % apply artificial of more than 15 years. The remaining 49% is attributed to fertilisers at times especially when some has been left from those who have never grown small grains. This can be maize production. This is because majority of the farmers explained by the fact that many of the government support do not regard small grains as their main crop for in terms of seed is more inclined to maize production production thus the allocation of inputs is mainly on maize rather than sorghum and millet [4]. production. In terms of the perceptions on the major advantage of small grain production majority of the farmers (73.4%) perceived that sorghum and millet are drought resistant, 3.3% of the respondents perceived that small grains have health benefits whilst 23.3% of the respondents expressed that they were not knowledgeable on the benefits of producing small grains. Majority (95.8%) of the farmers prefer producing maize than small grains and this is inclusive of the farmers that are already in small grain production. These farmers’ perceptions are mainly influenced by the agricultural extension programs the farmers would have been exposed to [5].

Major reason for not growing small grains

Table 3. Constraints in the production of sorghum and finger millet Reason % Lack of available market 16.3 Figure 1. Farming area allocated to small grains per household Traditional crop production and 42.9 processing is labour intensive From Figure 1 majority of the farmers do not have land Certified Seed not part of the 16.3 that is allocated to small grain production. For those who donation schemes are into sorghum and finger millet production most of them Lack of technical support 16.3 Religious values 4.1 allocate less than quarter an acre for small grain Sensory perceptible properties not 4.1 production. This is in contrast to research findings in preferable Ethiopia where the average household farming land allocated to sorghum production was 0.87ha [18]. This Results from Table 3 above indicate that the major reason result might be due to the explanation that millet for not producing sorghum and millet is that both cultivation area is directly dependent on the equipment that production and processing are too demanding in terms of is used in millet production and small-scale communal labour. Lack of technical support, lack of certified seeds farmers are not well equipped with advanced farming and lack of market were some of the constrictions in equipment. This will result in low acreage for millet sorghum and millet farming. The perception on lack of production [19]. available market is consistent with [5] study, which

© 2020, IJSRMS All Rights Reserved 39 Int. J. Sci. Res. in Multidisciplinary Studies Vol.6, Issue.9, Sept 2020 identified lack of market information as a constraint in marketing is closely related to [23] , which indicated that small grain production. Therefore, Zvimba farmers might 36% of the households’ regard sorghum as their income perceive that there is no market readily available for small source. The lower proportion of small grain sales might be grains because they might be lacking up to date attributed to the lower adaptation of sorghum and millet information on the market demand of the small grains. The production by farmers thus they will be relying on other issue of labour intensive can be explained by facts arising agricultural crops like maize as their main source of from Quelea birds attack, availability of machinery and income. issue of seeds. According to [21], Quelea birds attack on sorghum have been identified to result in labour intensive activities in sorghum production in Kenya. Mixed seeds have also been identified to result in labour intensive activities in sorghum production by smallholder farmers. The results on seed are consistent with findings by [21] where poor seed distribution has been identified as a constraint to sorghum production in Kenya. Mixed seeds have also resulted in low standard grains. Results on lack of technical support are consistent with findings by [5] studies in which lack of Agriculture extension services that are targeted towards small grains was also identified as a constraint to small grain production. Incapacitation of extension services in improved sorghum production technologies results in lower adoption of sorghum [21]. The linkage between research, millet production training and the value chain market is poor which results in low adoption of millet by the farmers [22].

A small proportion of the farmers are not producing small Figure 2. Training on small grain production in Zvimba District grains as a result of their religious beliefs. This might be explained by the fact that there are some Christian groups *AGRITEX is the Department of Agriculture and Rural that are not into production of the small grains merely Development because they attribute the main reason of small grain *NGO stands for Non-Governmental Organisations production to their use in beer production. A small proportion is also not into sorghum production as they do The results in Figure 2 are in line with [23] in which 55% not prefer the sensory attributes of sorghum. This can be of the respondents lacked access to training or agriculture explained by the fact that the taste, texture, flavour and extension services in millet production. This reveals that aroma of sorghum and millet products can be attributed to Agriculture Extension services that are being offered are the harvesting and processing methods that would have more inclined on production of other crops than on been employed. sorghum and millet production.

Major Purpose of growing small grains Determinants of choice of production of small grains

Table 4. Major use of small grains in Zvimba District Table 5. Binary logistic regression for socioeconomic factors of Use % households small grain production Beer brewing 8.5 Variable B Sig Exp(B) Mahewu (non-alcoholic fermented 33.8 Sex -0.279 0.583 0.757 beverage) production Age -2.400 0.030* 0.091 Sadza preparation 18.3 Marital status 0.058 0.923 1.059 Selling as grains 38.0 Training 1.990 0.000* 7.316 Selling as homemade malt 1.4 Crop consumption 0.337 0.787 1.404 preference As highlighted in Table 4 majority of the Zvimba district Religion -0.148 0.919 0.863 Level of education -0.712 0.356 0.491 farmers produce small grains for selling as unprocessed CHI Square 37.90 grains and for producing mahewu. Only a few produce Constant 0.62 0.693 1.859 small grains for consuming in the form of sadza as part of * Significant at 5% their main meal. From Table 4 majority of the households -2log likelihood 124.370 (60.6%) produce sorghum mainly for the purposes of Cox and Snell R Square 0.271 household consumption (beer, mahewu and sadza).This Negelkerke R Square 0.366 corroborates to [7] in which 69% of the farmers produce sorghum for household consumption. The results for the From Table 5, age had a negative and significant effect (p proportion that produce grains solely for the purposes of = 0.03) on the production of small grains. Age below 30

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AUTHORS PROFILE I.Kutyauripo holds MSc in Food Security and Sustainable Agriculture and a BTech Hons in Postharvest Technology. He has more than 10 years’ experience in research and capacity development in the disciplines of Food Science and Agriculture. His research interests are in food security, food systems, and agriculture capacity development.

P. Mutombo is a holder of MSc in Climate Change and Sustainable Development and a BSc in Geography and Environmental Studies. He has more than 10 years’ experience in climate change, forestry and agricultural development. His research interests are in climate change, agriculture and environmental sciences.