Cattle farmers’ willingness to establish private grazing lands in Mahalapye, Botswana

O I Oladele and M N Moilwa*

Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, North –West University Mafikeng Campus. South Africa
^* Department of Agricultural Economics, Education and Extension, Botswana College of Agriculture University of Botswana, Gaborone
oladele20002001@yahoo.com

Abstract

This study examined cattle farmers’ willingness to establish private grazing lands in Mahalapye sub-district, Botswana.  Simple random sampling technique was used to select 61 cattle farmers from three extension areas in the study area. A structured questionnaire which had earlier been subjected to face validity with a reliability coefficient of 0.92 was used to collect data from the sampled cattle farmers.  Data was analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) with frequency counts, percentages, means, standard deviation and probit regression analysis.

The results showed that  most cattle farmers (85.7%) were above 30 years of age, 54.1% males, 50.8% married, 59% had  tertiary education, 70.8% had no land title deeds 96.7% had income less than 10000BWP, while 62.3 were willing to establish private grazing lands. The  main source of information was veterinary extension officer (60.7%).

Overall, farmers on Mahalapye sub-district indicated a willingness to establish private grazing lands in order to manage pastures better and reduce the incidence of disease transmission. Such decision was affected by age (t = 3.32), educational level (t = 3.82), farming experience (t = 3.71),information sources (t = 2.80) herd size (t = 2.93), herd composition (t = 2.02), income (t = 2.86), land tenure (t = 3.26), attitude (t = 2.59) and constraints (t = -2.00).

Keywords: carrying capacity, communal grazing, feed resources, improved pasture, land tenure

Introduction

Livestock play an important role in most small-scale farming systems throughout the world. However, inadequate livestock nutrition is a common problem in the developing world, and a major factor affecting the development of viable livestock industries in poor countries (Sebina  and Duvel 2009). Research suggests that the Botswana’s rangelands cannot carry more than 3.5 million large stock units on a permanent basis, assuming that about 60% of the country is allocated exclusively to livestock grazing (Aganga and Nsinanwa 1997).  

In Botswana, grazing or browsing livestock are kept in open rangelands and over 90% of the feed requirements are supplied by open grazing. These have a long history of heavy use, and increase in the number of the national herd has resulted bush encroachment (Sebina and Lepetu 2009). The use of communal grazing system results in spread of Livestock diseases such as Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP) in the Xaudum area of North West District (Sebina 2007). 

To cope with the problems of poor quantity and quality of feed resources and remove the limiting effect of poor nutrition on livestock production  in arid and semi-arid rangelands farmers in Botswana supplement their livestock or practice mixed grazing during the dry season  Despite increasing pressure on traditional feed resources in Botswana especially rangelands, there has been little adoption of the concept of sown pasture and fodder production by both small and commercial farmers. This is partially due to lack of expertise in practical delivery systems from both research and extension services (Mutshewa 2000). The objective of this study was to determine cattle farmers’ willingness to establish private grazing lands in Mahalapye, Botswana.

Methodology 

A descriptive survey design   was used to conduct the study and the target population was 3500 cattle farmers in Mahalapye sub district distributed within 21 extension areas. A simple random technique was used to select 3 extension areas and a list of all cattle farmers in each extension area was obtained from the Department of Veterinary Services. A sample size of 61 farmers was obtained from the three extension areas. A structured questionnaire was designed based on the review of related literature and objectives of the study and comprised personal characteristics, attitude and constraints towards establishment of private grazing. Validity of the instrument was ensured using expert opinion. The survey instrument (questionnaire) was pre-tested in Mochudi and the split half test gave 0.92 coefficient. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyse the data.

A combination of a binary dependent variable, while the independent variables are in the multiple continuous and categorical variables makes probit a suitable choice for this empirical analysis (Ameniya 1981). The relationship between the probability of willingness Pi and its determinants q is given as:

Pi = βqi + µi,

where

P_i=1 for X_i>Z;

i=1,2 ......,n;

qi is a vector of explanatory variables and

β is the vector of parameters.

The probit model computes the maximum likelihood estimator of β given the non- linear probability distribution of the random error µi.  The dependent variable Pi is a dichotomous variable which is 1 when a farmer is willing to establish private grazing land, and 0 if otherwise. The explanatory variables are:   X₁ =  age in years, X₂  = dummy variable for gender  (male 1, female 0); X₃  = educational level in years, X₄  = dummy variable for marital status (married 1, not married 0), X₅  = farming experience in years, X₆  = number of dependants  in persons, X₇ = dummy variable for information sources (extension officer  = 1 others 0); X₈ = dummy variable for ownership status (owner  = 1 others 0); X₉ =  herd size as number of cattle, X₁₀=  dummy variable for  herd composition (Tswana = 1, others = 0) , X₁₁ = Income in Botswana Pula, X₁₂ = dummy variable for land tenure (not with title deeds = 1 with title deeds 0); X₁₃ = dummy variable for attitude (favourable = 1 not favourable 0)  and X₁₄ = constraints (severe  = 1 not severe 0)

Results and discussions 

Table 1 shows personal characteristics of cattle farmers in Mahalapye, a sub district in Central District of Botswana. Most of the respondents (85.7%) were above 30 years of age, 54.1% were males, 50.8% were married and 59% had tertiary education.

The most prominent information source was veterinary extension officer (60.7%) Most cattle farmers (70.8) have no land title deeds for their farms and this could be a major constraint to farmers establishing private grazing lands because the farms can be repossessed by the government at any time. Also, about 96.7% of the cattle farmers had income less than 10000BWP, while 62.3 were willing to establish private grazing lands.

Table 2 shows the mean and standard deviation of 34 items  on farmers’ attitude towards establishment of private grazing land which were rated  on  a 5 Likert scale of strongly agree (5), Agree (4), Undecided (3), Disagree (2), strongly disagree (1).

The actual mean was 3 due to the rating scale and a mean of greater than 3 denoted a positive attitude while a mean less than 3 denoted negative attitude of farmers towards willingness to establish private grazing lands.

The results revealed an overwhelming general positive attitude by farmers towards willingness to establish private grazing lands. All the means for the attitudinal statements were above the cut-off point of 3. The main benefits as ranked by the farmers were sufficient time to look after pasture (4.89), private grazing lands will reduce instances of transmission of disease and parasites (4.80), private grazing lands will help to attain market weight quickly (4.77) and private grazing lands will reduce the distance covered by the herd man (4.72). Previous studies reported that the major problems associated with communal grazing were poor pasture quality, transmission of diseases and reduced energy gained cattle due to long distance covered during grazing (Malope 2000, Mutshewa 2000, Sebina and Lepetu 2009). The item with the lowest mean (3.38) states that private grazing lands will increase the cost of watering. This implies an understanding that private grazing lands would require basic watering infrastructure.

Table 3 shows the mean and the standard deviation of 11 constraints to establishment of private grazing lands which were rated by farmers on a 2-point scale of YES (2) or NO (1).

The expected mean for the responses was 1.5 and the most severe were  pasture management is too expensive (1.95), lack of training by extension agents and veterinary officers (1.95),farmers unwillingness to invest in agriculture given the high risks, the hard work and uncertain returns (1.95) and growing of pasture is risky (1.84). Mogojane (1997) reported that in recent years, the role of governments in providing extension services in Botswana has reduced sharply because of agricultural subsidies.

Table 4 showed the coefficients for variables on farmers’ willingness to establish private grazing lands.

The model is significant at 5% and 10 variables were significant at 5% which were age (t = 3.32) educational level (t = 3.82) farming experience (t = 3.71)  information sources (t =   2.80) herd size (t = 2.93), herd composition (t = 2.02) , income (t = 2.86) , land tenure (t = 3.26), attitude (t = 2.59) and  constraints (t = -2.00) The sign for each coefficient is consistent with the expectation; that is, the probability of farmers’ willingness to establish private grazing lands increases as age, farming experience, educational level, herd size, income and attitude increases. Also, more sources of information, more variation in herd composition and more acquisition of land title deeds will increase farmers’ willingness to establish private grazing lands. Anim (2008) reported that cattle farmers’ age and herd size determines their willingness to pay for extension services in South Africa. However, as constraints facing farmer increases, their willingness to establish private grazing lands will decreases.

Conclusions 

The study has shown that:

•  Majority of cattle farmers in Mahalapye, a sub district in Central District of Botswana were above 30years of age, males, married had  tertiary education, have no land title deeds, had income less than 10000BWP, willing to establish private grazing lands  and their most prominent information source was veterinary extension officer

  
  

•  Significant determinants of farmers’ willingness to establish private grazing lands were  age,  educational level, farming experience,  information sources, herd size, herd composition, income , land tenure, attitude and  constraints.

References 

Aganga A A and Nsinanwa M 1997 Ruminant Feeds and Feeding; Government printers; Gaborone.

Ameniya T 1981 Qualitative response models: A survey. Journal of Economic Literature 19: 1483–1536.

Anim F D K 2008 Cattle Owners’ willingness to pay for Extension Services in South Africa.  Journal of Extension Systems 24(1):31-43

Malope P 2000 Sustainability Problems in Botswana Dry land Animal Agriculture; Government Printers; Gaborone; Botswana.

Mogajane E  M 1997 Erection of Multipurpose Infrastructure in the Communal grazing  Areas of South Africa  for livestock production, Proceedings of the VII International Conference of Institutions of Tropical Extension Medicine 15-17 March 1997.

Mutshewa P 2000 Commercial Pasture and Fodder Production in Botswana; Prospects and Constraints; Government Printers; Gaborone; Botswana.

 
Sebina N V 2007 Models of Rangeland Utilization in Botswana, Retrieved from http://www.bca.bw/NewsEvents/Newseventssset.htm September 2009
 

Sebina N V and Duvel G V 2009 Factors affecting Calving percentage in the four different ranching systems practiced by livestock farmers in the Southern region of Botswana; Botswana Journal of Agriculture and Applied Sciences; Published by Botswana College of Agriculture 5(1): 56-62.

Sebina N V and Lepetu J P 2009 Community Ranching Systems as an Approach to range Management; Proceedings of Animal Agriculture Workshop held on 27 to 31 July 2009 at the Centre for In-service and Continuing Education; Botswana College of Agriculture, Sebele; Botswana.

Received 22 March 2010; Accepted 12 June 2010; Published 1 September 2010

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