Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 23 ISSUE 3
Written by Solomon Chinyere UDAH, Innocent Chidiebere MBANASO, Charles Kelechi OSONDU

The study dealt on impact of malaria disease on swamp rice farm labour supply and coping strategies of malaria incapacitated farmers in South East, Nigeria. Multi-stage random sampling technique was employed in the selection of 900 respondents. The study made use of primary data. Data were collected using pre-tested and validated structured questionnaire. The data were subjected to descriptive (means and frequencies) and inferential statistics (Ordinary Least Square regression). Result showed that the mean number of days of malaria incapacitation and distance travelled to health care facilities by the swamp rice farmers in South East, Nigeria were 10.5 days and 1.5km respectively. Majority of the swamp rice farmers hired labourers (93.8%), cultivated less labour intensive crops (78.9%), reduced varieties of crops cultivated (77.2%), reduced area of farm land cultivated (70.8%) and withdrew savings/sold off their farm assets (75.6%) respectively as coping strategies during malaria incapacitation days. The Ordinary Least Square regression estimates of impact of malaria disease on labour supply to swamp rice farms in South East, Nigeria with exponential functional form as the lead equation posted R2 and F-ratio values of 0.729 and 100.757 respectively. The result showed that health status, access to health information, distance to health facilities, side effects of malaria drugs and annual farm income were significant at varying alpha levels. There should be interventions in form of mobilizing resources, formulating and implementing policies and programmes that will promote awareness and measures that ensure effective prevention and control of the disease.

[Read full article] [Citation]