Impact Of Agricultural Market Reforms On Smallholder Farmers In ...

information on agricultural input use, crop production methods, how to obtain credit for crop
production, and information on input and crop prices and crop marketing. The most useful type of
information that farmers would like to get is how to increase yields followed by how to conserve
and manage the land. Only about a quarter of the households noted that access to extension and
information services has gotten worse since 1995. The rest mentioned either better access (36-38
percent) or no change (38-39 percent).
In about 70 percent of the households, the extension agent’s visit is attended by the household
head. For the rest of the households, either the spouse or both the head and the spouse attend the
extension agent meeting. Female-headed households are almost as likely to get extension services
as their male-headed counterpart. However, in male-headed households, extension agents visit
the head in 63 percent of the households, or the head and spouse in 27 percent of the households.
Therefore, the spouse of a male-headed household is less likely to see an extension agent.
5.1.13 Farmers’ perceptions about the reforms
To get an idea of how farmers feel about the reform, farmers were asked about their perceptions
regarding the changes that have occurred since the reform of 1995. The first series of questions
focused on whether some crops had become more profitable since 1995. Table 5.63 summarizes
the farmers’ responses. For most crops, farmers noted that profitability had increased since the
reforms of 1995. This perhaps reflects the fact that market liberalization has favored the
agricultural sector in general, in terms of better prices and more opportunities for marketing by
smallholders.
The second series of questions focused on perceptions regarding changes in the availability of
inputs since 1995 (see Table 5.64). About two-thirds of the households noted that seeds had
become more available since 1995. And, for about half of the households, labor had also become
more available since then. Perceptions about the availability of fertilizer were more negative;
only about 39 percent reported an increase in fertilizer availability, 37 percent noted a decrease,
and 23 percent reported no change. Since most farmers do not use pesticides, the majority did not
know if they had become more or less available since 1995. These results suggest that, more than
for any other input, the rising cost of fertilizer has become an important issue for farmers
following the reforms.
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