Migration in Agriculture and Land Abandonment in Cameroon- Case study, North West Region

BSc. Nshing Rooney

Master's thesis

Abstract:

Abstract Farming which is supposed to be one of the main sources of income in less developed countries has been facing many challenges. In the study area in Cameroon, most farmers have migrated or simply abandoned their farmland in the past years. The main objective of this study was to analyse factors influencing farmland abandonment in the Northwest region of Cameroon. The data was collected using online and pen-and-paper questionnaire survey with 157 respondents in 2022. We applied descriptive statistics and a binary logistic regression (BLR) model to examine the factors that influenced of farmland abandonment. The descriptive results show that 50.6% of the respondents abandoned at least one hectare of farmland, those who abandoned two to four hectares made up 41% and lastly, those who have abandoned five hectares and above made 8.3% of the total respondents. The results from the regression model suggest that household income (p = 0.028), change in household head (p = 0.003), number of plots (parcels) (p=0.002) and labour provision (gender providing most labour) households (p=0.008) are the main factors influencing farmland abandonment. These farmers' perception-based findings will facilitate the improvement of governmental policies to better off farmers' standard of living and build sustainable farmland management.

Keywords

Farmland abandonment, migration, household head, labour, farming

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 27. 4. 2024

Thesis defence

• Date of defence: 3. 6. 2024
• Supervisor: doc. Ing. Miroslava Bavorová, Ph.D.
• Reader: Mustapha Yakubu Madaki, externi

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Tropical AgriSciences

Master programme:
Agri-food Systems and Rural Development