An Analysis of the Characteristics of Maize Storage Types Used by Smallholder Producers in Developing Countries: A Case of Uganda — Oak Academic Publishing
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An Analysis of the Characteristics of Maize Storage Types Used by Smallholder Producers in Developing Countries: A Case of Uganda
Makerere University, College of Business and Management Sciences, Kampala, Uganda
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Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
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Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
1 Makerere University, College of Business and Management Sciences, Kampala, Uganda
2 Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
3 Gordon Institute of Business Science, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Smallholder maize farmers are often faced with storage challenges. In Uganda, smallholder farmers are the major producers of maize. After production, the majority sell most of the maize then later buy for consumption at higher prices. This puzzle of producing, selling and later buying for consumption is attributed to inadequate and inefficient storage and is the premise of this investigation. The knowledge of the impact of household storage and farmers’ perception in Uganda is limited. The study sought to assess whether the storage types used are associated with the smallholder farmers’ characteristics. A multi-stage random sampling procedure was used to collect cross-sectional data from 270 farmers. The region of Eastern Uganda was selected because it is the highest maize producing. Three districts were selected on the basis of being the highest, medium and lowest maize producers, respectively. The chi-square tests were used to check for the relationships between the variables measured at 95% confidence level (p < 0.05). The findings show a significant relationship of location (district), gender, length of use of a particular storage type, method of acquisition of a storage type used by smallholder maize farmers. Areas of future research and recommendations based on the study findings are presented in the conclusion section.
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