Determinants of crop-livestock integration by small farmers in Benin

Abstract

Despite the numerous work conducted on integrated crop-livestock systems, very little is known about factors determining farmers’ trend to integrate. Our study aimed at a socioeconomic characterization of endogenous crop-livestock integration in Benin and identification of determinants of farmers’ decision to use these practices. Two hundred and forty farmers were surveyed in three agro- ecological regions randomly selected. A semi-structured questionnaire was used to collect information on farmer’s characteristics, production factors and agriculture and breeding by-products valorization practices. On the basis of main links between both productions, three integration levels (no integration, NI: 36%; partial integration, PI: 55%; total integration, TI: 9%) were identified and characterized according to socioeconomic characteristics of farmers. Then the multinomial logistic regression technique was used to predict the integration level of a given farmer in function of its socioeconomic characteristics. The three integration levels differ significantly (p<0.001) according to variables such as membership in farmers’ association, educational level, weight of agricultural experience, farming equipment and size of herds. The decision by a farmer to choose the total integration type significantly depends (p <0.001) on the size of his cattle herd, his membership in farmers’ association, the weight of his agricultural experience and his equipment value. Thus, integration is a practice used by small farmers with good experience in agriculture. Strategies for improving integration of cropping and breeding are to motivated farmers for cattle keeping and membership in an association.
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Keywords: Animal feeding, integrated soil fertility management, resilience, sustainability