Econometric modeling of farm household land allocation in the municipality of Banikoara in Northern Benin

Abstract This article aims at understanding the driving forces that determine the decision making on land allocation within the West African farms, giving evidence of farms in the Municipality of Banikoara in Northern Benin. Using a semi-structured one-on-one questionnaire, primary data were collected from a sample of 210 farmers randomly selected in two villages. Agricultural lands are mainly allocated among cereal, legume and cash crops. The seemingly unrelated regression of land allocated among these three categories of crops revealed that socio-economic and demographic characteristics, institutional arrangements on land and access to production factors (labor and capital for instance) explained 33–58% of the variations observed in land allocation. The findings highlight at different levels of significance – 1%, 5%, and 10% – that the main determinants of land allocation are the location (village), the household head characteristics (sex, off-farm income activities, group membership, farming experience), the household size, the number of household's members working in agriculture, the agricultural wage labor use, the household's capital, and the access to credit. Compared to cereal and legume crops, land allocated to cash crops is determined by access to credit in addition to household's capital. Consequently agricultural policy has to focus on enhancing household's capital. This could be done by facilitating the access to credit. In line with this, requirements and conditions for accessing credit should be reviewed. Moreover, support and advice from extension service needs to be enhanced in order to improve farmers’ skills.