An Economic Assessment of Banana Genetic Improvement and ...

106 CHAPTER 7
participatory decisionmaking. This conclusion
has implication for the extension methodology.
Extension sevices should not only
emphasize the benefits of the technology
but also include messages that prepare the
community for meaningful and effective
interactions.
Although bilateral transfers are statistically
significant in decisions about soil fertility
management practices, the magnitude
of coefficients is too small to matter much.
The most important conclusion from this
result is that although private social networks
may be used to compensate for costs
of market transactions, these do not overcome
market constraints with respect to soil
conservation investments.
In addition to social capital, the research
has identified other factors that
need the attention of policymakers. These
include market infrastructure, educational
programs that influence farmers’ perceptions
of the soil fertility problem, and
knowledge about management practices
and poverty in general. Improving access
to markets for banana producers, raising
the output price relative to the cost of labor,
is likely to have the greatest impact of any
single factor. Results provide strong evidence
that market incentives increase both
the probability of use and extent of use. A
major implication of these findings is that
banana growers in Uganda respond to market
incentives.
Household endowments of family labor
and other production assets (such as livestock
and per capita land availability) are
critical for good management of bananas,
reflecting market imperfections for these
factors. Removing market imperfections
completely is a long-term undertaking. In
the meantime, there is need to identify technologies
that demand less of farmers’ resources.
Such technologies should also address
the problem of increasing population
pressure on the land. For example, because
there is no market for mulching materials,
the extensive use of this practice depends on
the availability of land. Hence, use of this
practice is negatively related to increased
population pressure.
The issue of soil fertility depletion in
areas with greater access to road infrastructure
also needs more attention for long-term
banana productivity improvement. Although
general improvement in access to markets
increases the probability of using soil fertility
management practices, it does not seem
to motivate the extent of the use, due to
higher opportunity costs of labor. This finding
is of importance, given that improving
banana productivity through soil fertility
management will not be achieved based on
high rates of use only but on the extent of
their use. Moreover, the problem of soil
fertility depletion is likely to be intensive in
these areas, given the high levels of banana
commercialization.
High erosion potential encourages use
of mulching practices but discourages use of
manure, whose production function shifts
inward when the erosion potential is perceived
to be high. This result suggests that
other techniques that reduce erosion potential
need to be promoted along with manure,
while the positive role of mulching on curbing
erosion potential should be emphasized
in extension messages. Finally, results support
intensification of educational programs
as a means of promoting the use of soil fertility
management practices. Hence, more
support to extension programs would increase
use of these techniques.
In the context of the research presented
in this report, it should be emphasized that
long-term improvement in banana production
in Uganda will be achieved by relieving
not only the constraints related to both pests
and disease (addressed in Chapter 6), but
those related to soil fertility. This chapter is
an initial attempt to better understand the
factors that influence whether banana farmers
invest in soil fertility management.
Chapter 9 directly examines the relationships
of soil fertility and labor to banana
productivity.