Analysis of Enterpreneurial Behaviour among Small-Scale Rice Farmers in Niono Zone, Mali

Abstract

The globalization of Malian economy and recent improvement in business environment require small-scale farmers shifting from traditional farming of subsistence towards entrepreneurial farming.   Little is known on farmers' entrepreneurial behaviour (EB) in Mali. The purpose of this paper is to assess the level of EB among small-scale rice farmers in Niono zone at Office du Niger.  The multistage sampling procedure was used to interview 236 respondents having less than 5 hectares. Descriptive statistics was used to determine socio-economic and institutional characteristics of farmers while confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to analyse farmers' EB. The post-estimation tests such as Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin sampling adequacy, Bartlett' sphericity test and Cronbach's alpha indicated adequate sample size and fitness of model to the data, thus both reliability and validity of the instruments. The results of analysis showed that 51% of respondents are solo farmers and 31% of family property. There is high dominance of male-headed household with 982%, and 89% being native of the area. Among respondents, 51% are illiterate, 4% reached high school level and 31% dropped at primary school level. The results also showed good scores for all EB except reluctance and proactiveness. The study concluded that farming business is not enthusiastic occupation, and lack tools for risk prediction and management leads to a passive adaption of farmers to their business environment. Therefore, the study recommended efforts towards improvement of EB and attractiveness of farming towards stakeholders through trainings, improved infrastructures, better risk management tools and adequate institutional environment.