A STUDY OF FACTORS AFFECTING FARMERS CONTINOUS PURCHASE AND USE OF CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS IN THE WEST PROVINCE OF CAMEROON

This study empirically analyses farmers' behaviour in relation to the measures adopted by government in the fertilizer subsector reform prog ramme. These measures involved: designing new institutional arrangemen ts to move away from a public monopoly managed by the Ministry of Agri culture and the National Fund for Rural Development (FONADER) to a sys tem involving the private sector. In implementing these measures in 19 88, it was assumed from a behavioural perspective that farmers would c ontinue to purchase good quality fertilizers if available on time at f arm-gate level, and if the price paid for coffee at producers' level w ere maintained. Also, farmers would continue to use them effectively r egardless of a relatively higher cost due to the removal of government subsidies. These measures were taken as a reaction to the hardship of the economic crisis announced by the government in 1987 in terms of s harp decrease in cocoa and coffee prices in the world market, shortage of liquidity in the national treasury, liquidation of most government development agencies, and reductions in employment rates in the publi c and private sectors. Two indicators were used to measure continuous adoption of fertilizers: purchase of fertilizers and amount of fertili zers effectively used on the farm. The findings suggest that: Purchase of fertilizers (Y1) is positively determined by interactions with the Extension agent and negatively by information sources. Amount of fert ilizers used (Y2) is positively affected by interactions with the Exte nsion agent, number of wives, and Farm size on the one hand, and is ne gatively affected by quantity of coffee sold in 1988/89 level of educa tion of the wife and quantity of coffee sold in 1989/90 on the other h and.