An Analysis on the Effect of Farmer’s Health on Production Performance in the Kumba Municipality of Cameroon

Ewala S. Oyang¹, Martin Paul Jr. Tabe-Ojong^2, and Ernest L. Molua¹

¹Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, University of Buea, P.O. Box 63 Buea, Cameroon

²Institute for Food and Resource Economics, University of Bonn, 53119, Bonn, Germany

Cite this paper:
Ewala S. Oyang, Martin Paul Jr. Tabe-Ojong and Ernest L. Molua. An Analysis on the Effect of Farmer’s Health on Production Performance in the Kumba Municipality of Cameroon. American Journal of Rural Development. 2018; 6(1):7-13. doi: 10.12691/ajrd-6-1-2

Abstract

Advances in productivity analysis show the importance of human capital in driving productivity and reducing inefficiency in production. Based on this premise, we profile and analyze the effect of farmer’s health on production performance in the Kumba municipality of the Southwest region of Cameroon. We sought to assess the share of poor health conditions on farm performance. Problems like malnutrition, poor values and habits amongst others, usually lead to farmer’s poor health. We tested this hypothesis with the use of robust statistics and the Ordinary Least square technique to capture the relationship between farmers output, poor health and other important determinants. The study found the health conditions of farmers to be a critical and positive determinant of farm performance. The amount of labour hours is also observed to positively influence farm production. Other significant variables are farm size and amount of pesticide used. We therefore recommend to policy, increased investment in the health sector to urgently and increasingly address the health conditions of farmers in a bid to improve their health conditions while targeting food production in the long run.

Keywords:
health farmers production

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