Impact of Poor Health of Maize Farmers on Farm Performance in Southwestern Cameroon

Telma A. Yamou^1, and Ernest L. Molua²

¹School of Agriculture, Policy and Development, University of Reading, Reading, United Kingdom

²Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, Faculty of Agriculture and Veterinary Medicine, University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon, P.O. Box 63 Buea, Cameroon

Cite this paper

Telma A. Yamou and Ernest L. Molua. Impact of Poor Health of Maize Farmers on Farm Performance in Southwestern Cameroon. American Journal of Public Health Research. 2018; 6(3):155-159. doi: 10.12691/AJPHR-6-3-5

Abstract

The study analyzed the impact of poor health on maize farmers’ performance in the Buea municipality. It made use of primary data collected with the help of a well-structured questionnaire, administered to 60 randomly sampled maize farmers in Buea municipality. The Ordinary Least Squares technique was used to analyze a non-linear stochastic model that captured the relationship between maize output, poor health and other important inputs. It was observed that a 1% increase in working hours of labour would increase output by 0.319% in the study area. Also, a 1% improvement in the health condition of the farmer will increase output by 0.291%. On average, 5,965.1 FCFA was spent by each farmer on health care and this led to a 29.2% loss in income. Given that the labour hours variable had the greatest magnitude, it shows the importance of health in the productivity of these workers, through the quantity and quality of labour. This implies the greater part of poor performance on the farm is a result of poor health, and so an improvement in the health condition will improve maize production significantly. Health should thus be given priority both by the farmer, where possible, and the government in any policy aimed at increasing maize production particularly in the study area.

Keywords

health, maize farmers, farm performance, Cameroon

Copyright

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References

[1]	John U., 2009. “Farmers’ Health and Agricultural Productivity in Rural Ethiopia” International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), Washington, DC Vol 3, No 2, September 2009.
[2]	Ruger, Jennifer Prah, Dean T. Jamison and David E. Bloom, 2001, “Health and the Economy”, page 619 in International Public Health, edited by Michael H. Merson, Robert E. Black and Anne J. Mills (Sudbury, Massachusetts: Jones and Barlett).
[3]	MINEPAT, 2008. Rapport d etude sur le fillierMais. Pp. 110.
[4]	Ajani, O.I.Y., and P.C. Ugwu. 2006. “Impact of Adverse Health on Agricultural Productivity of Farmers in Kainji Basin North-Central Nigeria Using a Stochastic Production Frontier Approach.” Trends in Agriculture Economics 1:1-7.
[5]	Brohult J., L. Jorfeldt, L. Rombo, A. Björkman, P.O. Pehrson, V. Sirleaf, and Bengtsson. 1981. “The Working Capacity of Liberian males: A Comparison Between Urban and Rural Populations in Relation to Malaria.”Annals of Tropical Medicine and Parasitology 75 (5): 487-494.
[6]	Ebock A.J. 2015. “Impact of Malaria on the Wellbeing and Productivity of Agricultural Households in the Buea Municipality.” Bsc Dissertation (Unpublished), Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, University of Buea.
[7]	Loeppke, R., Taitel, M., Haufle, V., Parry, T., Kessler, R. and Jinnett, K., 2009. “Health and Productivity as a Business Strategy: A Multiemployer Study.” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, 51(4), pp.411-428.
[8]	Evans, R., Barer, M., and Marmor T. (n.d.). “Why Are Some People Healthy and Others Not? The Determinants of Health of Populations.”
[9]	Central Bureau of the Census and Population Studies (BUCREP), 2005. Available online at: [http://bucrep.cm/index.php/en/home?id=128].
[10]	Olayide S.O., and Heady E.O., 1982. “Introduction to Agricultural Production,” Ibadan.