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Table 1 Descriptive statistics for the 30 variables used in the analysis of Balaka IP Malawi

From: Diversity amongst farm households and achievements from multi-stakeholder innovation platform approach: lessons from Balaka Malawi

Variables

Definition of the variables

Mean

SD

Household characteristics

 Household head is female

=1 if household head is female; 0 otherwise

0.293

0.457

 Age of household head

Age of the household head

49.277

15.716

 Education attained at least primary

=1 if household head have at least primary education; 0 otherwise

0.966

0.183

 Married

=1 if household head is married; 0 otherwise

0.690

0.465

 Main occupation is farming

=1 if the farmer’s main livelihood is farming; 0 otherwise

0.853

0.355

 Land size

Land size in hectares (ha)

1.694

1.522

 Household size

Household size

5.061

2.079

 Labour

Labour fit to work in the fields

3.035

1.487

 Farming experience

Farming experience

19.812

12.191

 Credit access

=1 if household have access to agricultural credit; 0 otherwise

0.672

0.471

 Extension access

=1 If household have access to agricultural extension; 0 otherwise

0.750

0.435

 Group membership

=1 if household is a member of any community group through the IP or any other means; 0 otherwise

0.629

0.485

 Received farmer training services

=1 if the household have access to training activities within the area, i.e. on crop and or livestock production and marketing; 0 otherwise

0.733

0.444

 Low-wealth category

=1 if household is in the low-wealth category; 0 otherwise

0.233

0.424

 High-wealth category

=1 if farmer is in the high-wealth category; 0 otherwise

0.224

0.419

Achievements and benefits from IP activities

 Improved market information

=1 if farmer Benefited through improve market information access; 0 otherwise

0.414

0.495

 Improved market access

=1 if farmer benefited through improved market access; 0 otherwise

0.853

0.355

 Improved income

=1 if farmer benefited through increased household income; 0 otherwise

0.828

0.379

 Improved conservation agriculture adoption

=1 if improved conservation agriculture adoption (i.e. more land area or crops under conservation agriculture) was a benefit of IP participation; 0 otherwise

0.897

0.306

 Improved soil fertility

=1 if farmer benefit through improved soil fertility; 0 otherwise

0.750

0.435

 Improved crop yield

=1 if farmer benefited through improvement in crop yields; 0 otherwise

0.164

0.372

 IP_savings eased credit access

=1 if farmer benefited from improved credit access through Improved savings from IP activities; 0 otherwise

0.319

0.468

 Negotiation with banks eased credit access

=1 if farmer benefited from improved ease of credit access through negotiations done with local banks from IP activities; 0 otherwise

0.060

0.239

 Improved trust eased credit

=1 if farmer benefited from ease of access to credit made possible by improved trust amongst villagers through IP activities; 0 otherwise

0.371

0.485

 Number of markets increased

=1 if farmer number of produce market outlets have increased through IP activities; 0 otherwise

0.759

0.430

 Food produced 2012/2013 season was enough

=1 if food produced in 2013/2014 season was enough to feed the family; 0 otherwise

0.819

0.387

 Food produced 2013/2014 season was enough

=1 if food produced in 2013/2014 season was enough to feed the family; 0 otherwise

0.759

0.430

 Improved overall food security

=1 if overall household food security improved from IP activities

0.828

0.379

 Farmers built a house

=1 if farmer built a new house and income from IP activities contributed immensely; 0 otherwise

0.560

0.498

 Farmers was able to send children to school

=1 if farmer was able to send children to school because of benefits from IP activities; 0 otherwise

0.836

0.372

  1. Data were collected from selected smallholder farmers in Balaka District of Southern Malawi in 2014