The Effects of capacity building programmes on income level among cassava smallholder farmers in South-Kivu, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC)

Abstract

The majority of farmers are smallholder farmers in the world who were about 608 million in 2021. Smallholder farming dominates the agricultural sector in Africa, majorly relying on family labor; with more than 30 million farms that are less than 2ha; and 80 percent of farms are small-scale farms. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has close to 80 million arable land, and agriculture employs close to 70 percent of the population while contributing 40% to the nation’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is the most widely grown and the main staple crop; and in 2016 alone, approximately 14.7 million tons of cassava tuberous roots were produced, which represented close to 71 percent of the DRC agricultural production. This study employed the Constructivist Learning theory which studies how people understand knowledge from their past experiences, and the Income and Employment theory to understand how entrepreneurs use their income in terms investments, expenditure and savings. This study employed a descriptive research design using an empirical approach. Data was collected from 394 farmers which was obtained using the Slovin’s formula. Primary data was collected by use a structured questionnaire, and was later be examined using a descriptive analysis and a quantitative approach with the help of Microsoft Excel. The study determined the effect of training, community of practice and coaching (which are forms of capacity building and independent variables) on income level among cassava smallholder farmers in South-Kivu in DRC. From the sample size, 326 (or 82.74% response rate) farmers participated in the study, of which 56% were female and 44% were male. The findings of the research indicated that 59.2% were training participants, 49.69% were community of practice participants and 49.94% were coaching participants who saw their income increase by at least 10% after participating in those capacity building programmes. From the findings, of all three variables analyzed, coaching activity with an expert had greater impact on smallholder farmers’ income. Study findings suggested that further research is should be conducted, covering more capacity building programmes, covering a larger geographical area, and clearly showing how in different regions capacity building programmes influence smallholder farmers income. The study was limited in terms of accessibility of data due to poor weather in South-Kivu. Furthermore, given the nature of the questions and data collected, inferential analysis was not carried out for more insight.

Keywords: Income, capacity building, cassava, smallholder farmers, training, coaching, community of practice.