Contributions of Eswatini National Agricultural Union on Small Scale Maize Farmers in Eswatini (Swaziland)

Ajay S. Singh¹ , Douglas Kibirige² , Mhlabane M. Mthobisi³

Section:Research Paper, Product Type: Journal-Paper
Vol.6 , Issue.9 , pp.93-100, Sep-2020

Online published on Sep 30, 2020

Copyright © Ajay S. Singh, Douglas Kibirige, Mhlabane M. Mthobisi . This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
 

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Abstract :
In Eswatini, maize is the major crop grown mostly by smallholder farmers and contributor to the nation food basket. For increased and improved agricultural production and farmers’ livelihood, Eswatini National Agricultural Union was established for improved member farmers’ access to agricultural finance, insurance products and access to other agricultural related services. However, there is limited information about ESNAU’s contribution to farmers’ farm income, hence the study. A total sample of 104 farmers was selected in Hhohho region of Eswatini for this study and respondents were interviewed using a structured question. Descriptive statistics were used to generate results presented in this article. The sampled respondents can be characterised as mostly female (56%) with an average age of 51 years, mostly married (73%), attained high school education (64%), and mostly depend on farming as their source of income having about 11-20 years of farming experience (39%) and cultivating on 1-2 hectares of land. Further findings of the study indicate that ESNAU members access farm input credit were generating more revenues per hectare (E7843.75) compared to non-credit members (E5231.06). The major challenges faced by farmers included low out price, unreliable market, inadequate transport, shortage of government tractors and lack of training in maize production. Based on the suggestions presented in the results by small-scale rural farmers in Hhohho region, this study recommends that in addition to ESNAU efforts to serve farmers, all stakeholders including the government, NGOs, CBOs and farmers have to catalyse policies and programs that target to improve on farmers’ maize market access, increased access to maize input subsidies, improved access to less costly tractor hire services, encourage more research and innovations in maize cultivars, encourage formation of farmers’ cooperatives and more extension services for increased production and incomes among rural small-scale maize farmers.

Key-Words / Index Term :
Maize productivity, Profitability, Agricultural credit, Agricultural training

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