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Table 3 Characteristics of selected clusters of smallholder farmers from Balaka IP southern province of Malawi

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

 

(1)

(2)

(3)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

p values

Cluster I

Cluster II

Cluster III

Cluster IV

Cluster V

Cluster VI

All clusters

Means

Means

Means

Means

Means

Means

Means

SD

Household characteristics

 Household head is female

0.364

0.733

0.476

0.048

0.135

0.222

0.293

0.457

0.0000

 Age of household head

67.545

60.867

45.667

57.048

39.806

37.333

49.277

15.716

0.0000

 Education attained at least primary

1.000

1.000

0.857

1.000

1.000

1.000

0.966

0.183

0.0159

 Married

0.545

0.133

0.619

0.952

0.892

0.667

0.690

0.465

0.0000

 Main occupation is farming

0.818

1.000

0.905

0.762

0.811

1.000

0.853

0.355

0.2393

 Land size

1.282

1.113

0.952

1.729

2.212

2.544

1.694

1.522

0.0079

 Household size

2.545

3.800

5.524

6.524

5.378

4.889

5.061

2.079

0.0000

 Labour

1.545

2.267

3.476

4.286

3.000

2.333

3.035

1.487

0.0000

 Farming experience

29.309

28.600

19.714

26.762

12.216

9.111

19.812

12.191

0.0000

 Credit access

0.273

0.933

0.381

0.952

0.730

0.556

0.672

0.471

0.0000

 Extension access

0.545

1.000

0.905

0.905

0.622

0.556

0.750

0.435

0.0017

 Group membership

0.727

0.667

0.762

0.762

0.541

0.333

0.629

0.485

0.1373

 Received farmer training services

0.727

0.800

0.619

0.952

0.811

0.222

0.733

0.444

0.0006

 Low-wealth category

0.273

0.733

0.286

0.048

0.162

0.000

0.233

0.424

0.0000

 High-wealth category

0.091

0.133

0.286

0.429

0.216

0.000

0.224

0.419

0.0792

Achievements and benefits from IP activities

 Improved market information

0.455

0.400

0.381

0.429

0.541

0.000

0.414

0.495

0.1117

 Improved market access

1.000

0.933

1.000

0.905

0.892

0.000

0.853

0.355

0.0000

 Improved income

0.818

0.867

1.000

0.952

0.865

0.000

0.828

0.379

0.0000

 Improved conservation agriculture adoption

1.000

1.000

1.000

1.000

0.946

0.000

0.897

0.306

0.0000

 Improved soil fertility

0.909

1.000

0.667

0.714

0.784

0.333

0.750

0.435

0.0051

 Improved crop yield

0.091

0.067

0.333

0.381

0.054

0.000

0.164

0.372

0.0022

 IP_savings eased credit access

0.091

0.800

0.286

0.571

0.135

0.111

0.319

0.468

0.0000

 Negotiation with banks eased credit access

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.000

0.135

0.222

0.060

0.239

0.0328

 Improved trust eased credit

0.636

0.267

0.190

0.381

0.405

0.444

0.371

0.485

0.1978

 Number of markets increased

0.909

0.933

0.381

1.000

0.703

0.889

0.759

0.430

0.0000

 Food produced 2012/2013 season was enough

0.818

1.000

0.429

0.905

0.919

0.889

0.819

0.387

0.0000

 Food produced 2013/2014 season was enough

0.909

0.867

0.429

0.667

0.919

0.778

0.759

0.430

0.0004

 Improved overall food security

0.818

0.867

0.571

0.952

0.892

0.889

0.828

0.379

0.0151

 Farmer built a house

0.364

0.733

0.429

0.667

0.541

0.667

0.560

0.498

0.2696

 Farmer was able to send children to school

0.091

0.867

0.952

1.000

0.973

0.667

0.836

0.372

0.0000

 N (%)

11 (9.48)

15 (12.93)

21 (18.10)

21 (18.10)

37 (31.90)

9 (7.76)

116 (100)

  
  1. SD standard deviation. Data were collected from selected smallholder farmers from Balaka IP in southern province, Malawi, p value is for one-way ANOVA (equality of group means)