Abstract:
The purpose of this study is to investigate the contribution of Self help Groups in enhancing the
smallholder farmers' income in Huye District, Rwanda. In the study area there is a problem of
low income from agriculture production due to bad agriculture practices, subsistence agriculture,
and lack of off farming activities like saving and small plots of land for agriculture activities to
farmers. This Thesis studied the socio-economic characteristics of the members of SHGs, the
level of saving before and after joining the SHGs and examined the determinants of farm income
among SHGs smallholder farmers. By the time this study was conducted, there were a total of
519 smallholder maize farmers (230 males and 289 females) members of SHGs which started
their activities in 2012. Semi-structured questionnaires were administered to Seventy Five (75)
randomly selected SHG members in order to collect quantitative and qualitative data. The
primary data were collected from smallholder maize farmers and entered in Statistical Package
for Social Science (SPSS) to be analyzed. Data collected from respondents were analyzed using
models and descriptive statistics (percentages and frequencies). The means and standard
deviations were used to analyze the difference of farmers on before and post SHGs in terms of
production and saving.
Paired sample test were used to explore the significant difference between the Production and
savings on basic needs of SHG members before and after joining the SHG. For this research,
Multivariate Linear Regression Model were used to assess the most optimal combination of
resource in farmers SHGs farms so as to improve even further farms' production and to
maximize the farm income. The findings showed that most of the smallholder maize farmers'
members of SHGs are in their active and productive age when they can put in their best for
optimum productivity, the production and savings increased after joining the SHGs when compared to before. It was also found that the area of land, hired labor, fertilizers and seeds
contribute most in maize production. The age of the household head, the household size, the farm
size, the maize production quantity, the price and the cost were the major determinants of farm
income. This study recommend that in order to increase the farm production and farm income,
more effort should be put in grouping farmers into SHGs based on land proximity as this may
facilitate their capacity building and land consolidation policy implementation. |
