ANALYSIS of the DETERMINANTS of AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION in WEST AFRICA: CASE of the REPUBLIC of BENIN Yann Emmanuel Sonagnon Miassi
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ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION IN WEST AFRICA: CASE OF THE REPUBLIC OF BENIN Yann Emmanuel Sonagnon Miassi To cite this version: Yann Emmanuel Sonagnon Miassi. ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION IN WEST AFRICA: CASE OF THE REPUBLIC OF BENIN. ÇUKUROVA 4. ULUSLARARASI YENİLİKÇİ BİLİMSEL ARAŞTIRMALAR KONGRESİ, Feb 2020, Adana, Turkey. hal-02774312 HAL Id: hal-02774312 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02774312 Submitted on 4 Jun 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. ÇUKUROVA 4. ULUSLARARASI YENİLİKÇİ BİLİMSEL ARAŞTIRMALAR KONGRESİ 21-23 Şubat 2020 ANALYSIS OF THE DETERMINANTS OF AGRICULTURAL MECHANIZATION IN WEST AFRICA: CASE OF THE REPUBLIC OF BENIN Yann Emmanuel MIASSI Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Cukurova INTRODUCTION The agricultural sector provides employment for the majority of the African population and generates a large part of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) (Zhou, 2016). In Africa, the agricultural sector is the main source of income for the majority of the population (OECD / FAO, 2016); with a large share of the population living in rural areas (Makinwa-Adebusoye, 1999). This sector contributes more than 35% of the GDP of the majority of the countries in Africa and employs more than 60% of assets (Guèye, 2006). Benin is one country of West African whose agriculture represents the fold of the national economy (Miassi and Dossa, 2018). Despite the capital importance of this sector for the economy of this country, agricultural sector is characterized by poor mechanization (Agbo & Honkpehedji, 2009). For almost a century, experiments in mechanizing family farming have had mixed results in West Africa (Havard & Side, 2013). However, in a context where food security in West Africa is threatened by climatic variations as well as questions of declining soil fertility, the use of agricultural mechanization could make it possible to reduce risks in a certain way. It is with this in mind that the present study is part of the analysis of the determinants of the use of agricultural mechanization by producers in Benin. METHODOLOGY The present study aims to analyze the determinants of agricultural mechanization in West Africa, specifically in three (3) provinces of North-Benin. This study was based on data collected from a sample of 120 farmers. The data collected mainly concerns the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of producers. Using STATA software, a Logit regression model identified the parameters influencing the adoption of agricultural mechanization by producers in Benin. Adéoti et al. (2002) present the model by the following equation: Where: P (Yi): The probability for an individual i to use mechanization; P (Yi) = 1 if mechanization is adopted and 0 if not; e: The exponential function ; Yi: The explained variable; β: The vector of the parameters to be estimated, the sign of which allows the interpretation of the results; α: The constant; Xi: characteristic of producer i. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION It emerges from the analysis of the table, that the model is globally significant at a threshold of 1% (p = 0.0000 <1%) with a pseudo R² equivalent to 0.8950. Variables such as the age of the producer, membership of a producer group and the size of the household are the variables that determine the mechanization of production in northern Benin (Table 1). These results corroborate with those of Mujinga & Nganda (2018). Age has a negative effect on the choice of the producer to adopt mechanization. Thus, the older the producer, the less he tends to resort to mechanization. This is explained by the fact that the producers are conservative and remain attached to the old forms of production. Like the ‘’age’’ variable, household size also has a negative effect on producer choice. Indeed, some producers are responsible for large families. They therefore see in the latter a fairly large labor force and show no interest in mechanization. Unlike these variables, the producer's membership of a group positively influences the choice of the producer. This is due to the fact that producers belonging to the various groups are made aware of the importance of the use of mechanization. These proposed explanations also go in the same direction as those of Zhou (2016) and then of Havard & Side (2013). Table 1: Determinants of agricultural mechanization in North-Benin CONCLUSION The membership of a producer group positively influence producer’s recourse to mechanization. However, variables such as the age of the producer, and the size of the household negatively impact this choice. It is therefore imperative that sectoral policies, as well as development programs and projects that are part of a dynamic mechanization of agriculture in Benin, consider these parameters. References Adéoti, R., Tamò, M., Coulibaly, O, (2002), Factors affecting the adoption of new cowpea Vigna unguiculata technologies in West Africa, 1–18. Agbo, SAJ, Honkpehedji, NR, (2009), Analysis of the determinants of the production of food crops in Benin: the case of maize and yams, Final thesis, Universite D'abomey Calavi, National School of Economics Applied And Management. Guèye, B. (2006), “Policy, poverty and agricultural development to support small scale farmers in Sub Saharan Africa. Reflections from West Africa ”. Article presented at the poverty workshop in Frösundavik, 40 p. Havard, M., Side, S.C., (2013), The dynamics of mechanization of agricultural production and processing in West Africa, 4th International Conference "biofuels in africa", Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 14 p. Makinwa-Adebusoye, P., (1999), The African family in rural areas. In: Aderanti Adepoju ed., The African family: Demographic policies and development, Paris: Editions Karthala, 135-152. Miassi, Y.E.S., Dossa, K.F., (2018), Socio-Economic determinants of the adoption of agricultural contracts: Case of cashew farmers in NorthEastern Benin, Int J Progress Sci Technol 6 (2): 243-250. Mujinga, K., Nganda, A., (2018), Determinants of agricultural mechanization at kimpese in the province of central Kongo, Revue Congolaise d'Economie et de Gestion, EDUPC, 2018. hal-01788077, 14 p. OECD / FAO, (2016), "Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa: Prospects and Challenges for the Next Decade", in OECD and FAO Agricultural Outlook 2016-2025, OECD Publishing, Paris. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/agr_outlook-2016-5-fr. Zhou, Y., (2016), The Mechanization of Agriculture in West Africa, Syngenta Foundation for Sustainable Agriculture, 11 p..