Financial Participation Among Smallholder - Farmers in Zimbabwe: What Are the Driving Factors?

Abstract

Small-scale farmers' financial participation boosts output while also raising living conditions by breaking the poverty cycle. Many policymakers regard it as a necessary input for increasing agricultural production because it is a vital aspect of the agriculture sector's commercialization and the modernization of the rural economy. Financial participation is a vital input for agriculture to achieve substantial growth. Small-scale farmers' financial engagement in many rural families remains a concern in Zimbabwe, despite the construction of a vast network of financial institutions in towns and growth centres. This research examines the factors that influence smallholder farmers' engagement in Zimbabwe's formal financial markets. The Binary Logit model was used to evaluate the characteristics that influence smallholder farmers' engagement informal financial markets. The results from the logit model indicated that “gender, household head age, land size, and agricultural extension service” were the significant factors influencing financial participation by smallholder farmers. As a result, the government should prioritize measures targeted at expanding the area of land available to small-scale farmers to ensure that these farmers are in the position to commercialise their activities. Again, support towards agricultural extension programs aimed at expanding farmer training and “doubling efforts to guarantee that the age distribution in farms” is balanced between the young and the old, as age has an impact on formal financial market involvement.

Received: 8 March 2022 / Accepted: 20 June 2022 / Published: 5 July 2022