Title: Effect Farm Management Practices on Performance of Smallholder Rice Farmers in Cameroon: A Case of the West Region of Cameroon
Abstract: This study was carried out to analyse effect of farm management practices on performance of smallholder rice farmers in Cameroon: A Case of the West Region of Cameroon.A purposive, multistage and stratified random sampling technique was used in selecting the respondents.A total of 192 small scale rice producers were purposively selected from four (4) out of eight divisions.Data were collected using structured questionnaires and interview schedule, administered on the respondents were analyzed using multiple linear regressions.The result indicated that the linear functional form has the highest coefficient of determination (R2) of 0.978 implying that farming experience; farm size; rice variety; extension visit; credit received and rice output contributes to 97.8 percent of the variation of the performance of smallholder rice farmers.The result further revealed that coefficients for rice variety; extension visit; rice output; farming experience; farm size and credit received were found positive and significantly influenced the performance of smallholder rice farmers at 1 percent level of probability.This implies that increases in rice variety; extension visit; rice output; farming experience; farm size and credit received by unity will increase their performance by the value of their coefficients.It is therefore recommended that: experience farmers should be encouraged to remains in rice production as well as agricultural credit should also be made available at low interest rate in order to enhance smallholder rice farmers' performance.