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Abstract
About 70% of the Namibian population depends on agricultural activities for their livelihood.
Moreover, agriculture remains an important sector to Namibia because its national economy
is widely dependent on agricultural production. Cattle producers in the Northern Communal
Areas (NCAs) have an option to market their cattle via the formal or informal markets.
Efforts have been made to encourage producers to market their cattle through the formal
market; however, limited improvement has been observed. In this study a number of factors
have been analysed to determine its influences on cattle marketing decisions. Factors
influencing the marketing decision of whether or not to sell through the formal market are
analysed using the Probit model. Factors influencing the proportion of cattle sold through the
formal market on condition that a producer uses the formal markets to sell cattle are analysed
with the Truncated model. Testing the Tobit model against the alternative of a two-part
model is done using Cragg’s model. Empirical results revealed that problems with transport
to MeatCo, improved productivity, accessibility to market-related information and access to
new information technology, are some factors significantly affecting the decision of whether
or not to sell through the formal market. Payment arrangements by MeatCo, animal handling,
accessibility to new information technology, age of respondents and lack of access to
marketing expertise, are some factors influencing the proportional number of cattle sold
through the formal market. The results suggest that substantially more information is
obtained by modelling cattle marketing behaviour as a two decision-making instead of a
single decision-making framework.