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Factors Associated With the Production of Export Quality Fruit by Small Banana Farmers of the Rio Grande Valley, Portland, Jamaica.

The objectives of this study of small banane farmers in the Rio Grande Valley, Jamaica, were to determine the relationship between production variables— technology use and production of export quality fruit--and selected socioeconomic, personal characteristic and opinion variables, to assess the amount of variance in production variables explained by personal characteristic, socioeconomic and opinion variables, and to identify those socioeconomic, personal characteristic and opinion variables that moderate or mediate the relationship between the production variables— production of export quality fruit and tech­ nology use. The target population was 120 farmers identified as growing bananas foi* sale to the public boxing plant at Fellowship in the valley. A random sample of non-banana farmers was used as a cross-validation check to make inferences to all farmers. Farmers were interviewed using a pretested interview schedule. Stepwise multiple regression was used to develop models to explain the variance in technology use and production of export quality fruit, and the relationship between technology use and production of export quality fruit was analyzed to identify the moderator or mediational effect of selected personal characteristic, socioeconomic and opinion variables. Findings indicated that banana farmers and non-banana farmers were more similar than they were different. Ten variables explained 46% of the variation in technology use. Socioeconomic variables were more important in explaining variation in technology use compared to opinion (attitudinal) variables. Sixty percent of the explained variance was accounted for by socioeconomic variables— farm size, rate of use of hired labor, rejection rates, and number of visits by extension officers. Farmers' use of technology tended to increase with rate of use of hired labor, farm size, rejection rate, and number of visits by extension officers. Four variables explained 34% of the variation in production of export quality fruits. These were technology use, farm size, complexity of recommended practices, and farmers' opinion of the role of extension in the farming system. Farmers' use of technology tended to increase with farm size and their use of technology. Five variables were found to moderate the effect of technology use on production. These were farmers' opinions about providing credit, technology, extension, and reducing the number of extension officers, and the complexity of recommended practices. Two variables, farm size and rate of use of hired labor, were found to mediate the effect of tech­ nology on production. It was recommended that level of extension activity among farmers be increased, improvements be made to the infrastructure of the valley, credit facilities for farmers be provided and the job of extension agents be redesigned so that more time is spent on educational activities as opposed to administrative duties. In addition, interventions to repair or modify the system should follow a unified approach which would capitalize on the synergy among interacting variables.