Effects of Award Incentives and Competition on Entrepreneurship Development Among Female Farmers in North West Province

Abstract

Since the inception of the Female Farmers Entrepreneurial Award in 1999 that was inaugurated to promote entrepreneurship and commercialisation among female farmers in the North West Province, there has not been any assessment study of the programme in the Province. This study sought to establish the effect of Award Incentives and Competition (AIC) on Female farmers Entrepreneurship Development in the North West Province. Specifically, the study identified the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents; described the agricultural entrepreneurial activities they are involved in; established their level of participation in the Awards Incentives and Competition; determined the benefits of the Awards, Incentives and Competition to the respondents; established the constraints that hinders women farmers from benefitting from the programme; and also determined the degree of commercialization of the female farmers. A simple random sampling technique was used to identify female farmers who are enrolled and participating in the AIC from the four districts of the province to ensure that all female farmers in the study area had an equal chance of being selected. Krejcie and Morgan's sample size table was used to determine the sample size. Accordingly, 156 respondents from the total population of 226 farmers agreed to participate. The semi-structured questionnaire consisting of six sections was used to collect information from the female farmers. Descriptive statistics (frequency counts, percentages, means and ranks), Household Commercialisation Index and inferential statistics (Probit regression) were used for data analysis. The mean age of the women was 46 years, with the majority (54.5%) being married. The mean household size was six, and almost two-thirds (60.3%) did not own the land they farmed. The mean farm size was 150 hectares, and 73.7% indicated that they employed up to five individuals in their business. Their mean income per-annum was less than ZAR 500,000. Entrepreneurship development was conceptualized in this study as a commercialization index. The commercialization index was determined by sales output for the different enterprises for each of the respondents. A pooled commercialization index score was generated for each of the respondents. The two categories of low and high were used as the dependent variables in probit regression analysis. The results show that there is a significant relationship between respondents' selected socioeconomic characteristics, benefits, constraints and participation in AIC on their entrepreneurship development that makes the null hypothesis rejected. It was further noted from the results of the regression that age and years of farming experience were significant to the entrepreneurship development of the respondents in the study at 1% and 5 % level of significance respectively. The One-way ANOVA was used to show the differences of levels of entrepreneurship development based on the level of participation, benefits and constraints on award incentives and competition. It was recommended that the programme should encourage younger generations of female farmers since the mean age was found to be 46 years and that a sustained level of participation with reduced constraint level will encourage entrepreneurship development in the study area. Training programmes should be encouraged from time to time to teach new or improved farming innovation as it was seen that respondents believed more in their years of farming experience than proper education; tax policies should be re-visited especially for emerging farmers as well as policymakers should revisit the policies put in place that is a bit challenging for emerging farmers to be able to secure financial support from the financial institutions.