Determinants of crop-livestock integration by small farmers in Benin

  • Koura B
  • Dedehouanou H
  • Dossa H
  • et al.
N/ACitations
Citations of this article
24Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

Abstract

Despite the numerous work conducted on integrated crop-livestock systems, very little is known about factors determining farmers’ trend to integrate. Our study aimed at a socioeconomic characterization of endogenous crop-livestock integration in Benin and identification of determinants of farmers’ decision to use these practices. Two hundred and forty farmers were surveyed in three agro- ecological regions randomly selected. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information on farmer’s characteristics, production factors and agriculture and breeding by-products valorization practices. On the basis of main links between both productions, three integration levels (no integration, NI: 36%; partial integration, PI: 55%; total integration, TI: 9%) were identified and characterized according to socioeconomic characteristics of farmers. Then the multinomial logistic regression technique was used to predict the integration level of a given farmer in function of its socioeconomic characteristics. The three integration levels differ significantly (p<0.001) according to variables such as membership in farmers’ association, educational level, weight of agricultural experience, farming equipment and size of herds. The decision by a farmer to choose the total integration type significantly depends (p <0.001) on the size of his cattle herd, his membership in farmers’ association, the weight of his agricultural experience and his equipment value. Thus, integration is a practice used by small farmers with good experience in agriculture. Strategies for improving integration of cropping and breeding are to motivated farmers for cattle keeping and membership in an association. © 2015 International Formulae Group. All rights reserved. Keywords: Animal feeding, integrated soil fertility management, resilience, sustainability

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Koura, B. I., Dedehouanou, H., Dossa, H. L., Kpanou, B. V., Houndonougbo, F., Houngnandan, P., … Houinato, M. (2016). Determinants of crop-livestock integration by small farmers in Benin. International Journal of Biological and Chemical Sciences, 9(5), 2272. https://doi.org/10.4314/ijbcs.v9i5.2

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free