Effects of agricultural extension services on coffee yield in Uganda: Evidence from the Uganda National Panel Survey 2011/12-2018/19

Abstract

The Coffee sub-sector is important to Uganda’s economy as depicted by its contribution to export earnings and livelihoods in Uganda. However, production levels remain low, despite there being potential for it to expand and therefore enhance the contribution of the sub-sector to the economy. One of the limitations to increased production of coffee in Uganda is the limited access to, inadequate and poorly equipped agricultural extension services, which in turn limits the use of production enhancing technologies. Therefore, this study examined the effects of agricultural extension services on coffee yield in Uganda. The study used a Fixed Effects regression model on four waves of the Uganda National Panel Survey data for the years 2011/12 to 2018/19 conducted by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics. According to the descriptive statistics, only 25.5 percent of coffee farmers had access to agricultural extension services. The findings also indicate that agricultural extension services increase coffee yield. In addition, quantity of fertiliser used, household size and female headed households are also associated with increase in coffee yield. The study therefore recommends that agricultural extension services should be extended to all coffee farmers. Also, the coffee farmers should be encouraged to seek for the services and should be sensitized about the importance of these services. In addition, coffee farmers should be encouraged to use inputs like fertilisers, labour and pesticides, which, from the results, are among the other factors that were found to increase coffee yield.