AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF SMALLHOLDER FARMING AND POVERTY REDUCTION: CASE OF SIERRA LEONE

Abstract

The practice of smallholder farming for most Sub-Saharan African Countries is crude and traditional and has resulted in low agricultural output in the region. Present study is the case in Sierra Leone; where the agricultural system is primarily based on small-scale farming and farmers face low agricultural output and an increased risk exposure with high seasonal volatility. Given the welfare implication of agricultural development in poverty reduction. The present study investigated empirically the role of smallholder farming to poverty reduction in Sierra Leone using the production relations, combined with the Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression techniques from 2005-2012. The study reveal that the total supply of food crops has a positive impact on profitability and statistically significant at the 10% level and the export of food crops mixed though significant at the 5% level. Import is found to reduce profit at a smaller margin and insignificant. In general, import of food crops exceeds export and on average the return to profitability is 26.8% with export having relatively high volatility. On balance, the result indicates that smallholder farming contributes to the eradication of poverty. This understanding is important for academics, policy makers and development organizations in shaping future agricultural development.