Welfare status of rice farming household in office du Niger Segou region of Mali

Abstract

The study examined the welfare status of rice farming household in Office du Niger, Segou region, Mali. Multi-stage sampling was used to select 137 rice technology adopters and 65 non-adopters in the study area. Frequency counts, percentages, PPPMC and t-test were used for data analysis. About 45.0% of non-adopters and 29.2% of adopters were aged 31-40. Non-adopters and adopters had an average of 6 and 10 years of experience in rice farming, respectively. Most adopters (73.0 %) and non-adopters (50.8%) had a farm size between 1-5 hectares. Most adopted rice varieties were Kogoni 91-1 (94.2%) and IR 32 mille (81.0%). There was a high level of adoption among 59.1% of adopters. About 61.0% of adopters, but 53.8% of non-adopters earned less than 500,000 CFA (864.30 USD) annually from other activities as against between 500,000 and 1,000,000 CFA (872.60 and 1,745.20 USD) among 58.5% of non-adopters and above 2,000,000 CFA (3,490.40 USD) for 67.2 % of adopters. The majority (61.5%) of non-adopters had improved welfare status as against 80.3% of adopters in the same category. Household size (r = 0.192), income gained from rice production (r = 0.482, p = 0.000) significantly influenced respondents' welfare level. There was a significant (t = -12.089) difference in quantity of rice produced by adopters (38544.73±17721.69768Kg) and non-adopters (11394.77±5244.97546). There was a significant (t = -2.917) difference) in welfare status of the adopters' and non-adopters. Office du Niger should intensify efforts at up-scaling dissemination of improved rice technologies to cover more rice farmers.