Economic Analysis and Determinants of Selected Women-Led Vegetable Enterprises Performance in Koutiala and Bougouni Distircts, Mali

Abstract

Vegetable production is one of the most important income generating activities conducted by women in Koutiala and Bougouni. This enterprise plays a fundamental role in economic development as well as improved household income and food security. Although the women have continuously produced and marketed vegetables, many households are still poor. As a result, the World Vegetable Centre introduced various interventions to improve performance of the women owned vegetable enterprises and one among many being the introduction of five new varieties of vegetables (tomato, onion, okra, eggplant and chilli). Nevertheless, empirical evidence is lacking on the benefit  derived by farmers who have chosen the vegetables as well as the socio-economic and institutional factors influenicng the same. Therefore to evaluate the performance and determinants of selected women-led vegetable enterprises, gross margin analysis and ordinary least square model were used. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to obtain a sample size of 384 vegetable farmers. The study found that there was difference in the gross margins (GM) across the enterprises. All the vegetable enterprises had a positive GM and okra had the highest per meter squared  (1012 fcfa, in usd 2.53) followed by tomato (1008 fcfa, in  usd 2.52), onion (942 fcfa, in usd 2.35), chilli (364 fcfa, in usd 0.91 ) and eggplant (213 fcfa, in usd 0.53), respectively. Additionally, farm land size, access to market  and group membership had a posive influence on vegetable enterprise while the number of enterprises and seed cost had a negative effect on vegetable enterprise performance. The study recommneds for creation of credit associations which can boost farmers’ access to finacial empowerment which can ultimately enhance the performance of enteprises. Further, development of better infrastructure such as road and storage facilities is also needed.

Keyworks: Gross margin, Mali, Performance, Vegetable enteprise, Women-led