Bøger af Sunday Silungwe

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2020 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, University of Lusaka, language: English, abstract: The Living Conditions Monitoring Survey (LCMS) conducted in 2015 revealed that rural poverty stood at 76.6 percent and 23.4 percent for urban poverty respectively. To this effect, rural poverty still remains high and predominantly a rural phenomenon. This study sought to evaluate the effectiveness of the out-grower schemes on reducing poverty and answer the general research question on how effective were the out-grower schemes in reducing poverty in rural Zambia.Pragmatism was the philosophical view that underpinned the study and it applied to the mixed research method approach for this study. The convergent parallel strategy of the mixed research method approach was used. The target population was 50,000 smallholder farmers and a questionnaire with open ended questions (qualitative) and closed questions (quantitative) was administered to a sample size of 396 smallholders farmers. Simple random sampling was used to select smallholder farmers.Qualitative data was analyzed by using the inductive process of building from the data to broad themes and then to interpretation. Quantitative data was analysed by using the Chi-square tests to ascertain association between critical variables measured by categories of out-grower farmers and independent farmers. The T-tests compared the treatment and control groups on variables of interest. The coefficient of variation (CV) was used to gauge the level of respondents¿ disagreement (dissention) in responses while coefficient of consensus (CC) was used to gauge the level of respondents¿ agreement (consensus) in responses, applied to the Likert scale and any other ordinal responses.The findings from the study revealed that the out-grower schemes implementation has contributed to a positive change in poverty reduction to smallholder farmers participating in the out-grower scheme. Further, out-grower farmers have improved their knowledge in understanding the operation of the out-grower scheme. Subsequently, the out-grower schemes have benefited the communities. In this regard, the study concluded that the out-grower schemes have been effective in reducing poverty in the rural areas of Zambia. The study recommended that there was need to address the issue of power imbalance between the out-grower farmers and the out-grower firms.

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Agrarian Studies, grade: 2.98, University of Lusaka, language: English, abstract: Out-grower schemes as an appropriate model for improving livelihoods of people in rural areas need to be recommended. This is because out-grower schemes provide access to agricultural inputs and market to the rural farmers. These services seem to be scarce, especially in a liberalized economy like Zambia. However, there are debates as whether out-grower schemes have been beneficial to farmers or not.Therefore, this study aims at investigating the impact of tobacco out-grower schemes on the economic well-being of farmers at Mugubudu tobacco out-grower scheme of Chipata District. To do this, the study employed non-experimental cross sectional research design. 150 questionnaires were distributed to solicit data from 150 randomly selected small scale tobacco farmers using a tobacco farmers' register as sample frame.The salient findings of the study were that tobacco out-grower schemes had improved the well-being of small scale tobacco farmers. Indicators for this improvement were that small scale tobacco farmers had acquired assets and their consumption expenditure had increased. However, the study established that lack of information as regard to contract contents, insufficiency of extension services, pricing system, environmental hazards and debt from inputs loans as factors that can choke the strides made by out-grower schemes.The study recommended that information is be provided in local languages as this will reduce the current difficulties as many of agro-literature is published in English. It is necessary that there is improved collaboration, dialogue and negotiation among all stakeholders namely the Ministry of Agriculture through the regulatory body Tobacco Board of Zambia (TBZ), out-grower firms and farmers association on issues such as pricing, dissemination of information and loan management. The quantity of extension services should be increased and quality improved to enhance productivity which would consequently improve income well-being. Finally, government should make it as policy for tobacco out-grower schemes to embrace efforts of sustainable environmental management as failure to do so have the potential to erode strides made so far in improving the well-being of small-scale tobacco farmers.