Suchergebnisse

Entrepreneurship in the sub-Saharan African agricultural sector has been growing in recent years because of increasing unemployment and underemployment. In Benin, policies and programs are encouraging individuals to start their own agribusinesses. To further sharpen these policies and programs to improve agricultural entrepreneurship's contribution to the economy, it is essential to avail information on the entrepreneurs, their businesses, and the typologies of agribusinesses. Such information is limited, which reduces the ability to develop evidence-informed policies and programs. This research aims to fill the gaps by describing the features of agricultural entrepreneurs in Benin. A random sample of 819 agricultural entrepreneurs was used, and data were collected on entrepreneurs and their businesses. Descriptive analysis and hierarchical clustering of principal components were performed. The study found that women's participation in agricultural entrepreneurship in terms of new business formation is still low. Also, the agricultural entrepreneurs are more driven by necessity than opportunity, although they have a highly positive personality, mainly in terms of optimism and risk. At the enterprise level, most agribusinesses have been in operation for more than three years, but only one out of ten entrepreneurs felt that their business was at a mature phase. The research also evidenced that informality in the agribusiness sector is high because almost half of the agribusinesses were not registered with any formal governmental entity, and only three out of ten complied with tax regulations. Agricultural entrepreneurs were active in knowledge networks to expand their activities and improve their performance. Three categories of agribusiness were defined with the cluster analysis: 'informal agribusinesses' essentially built for profit, not registered, and owned by not highly educated adult entrepreneurs; 'professional new agribusinesses' were mainly operated by young entrepreneurs with a university education and agricultural professional training; and 'mature agribusinesses' were mostly formally registered and owned by highly educated entrepreneurs. This research will be instrumental for policymakers and practitioners to better understand agricultural entrepreneurship and improve its economic outcomes. It provides a strong evidence base to support the ongoing motivation of policymakers to provide solutions to unemployment and underemployment through agricultural entrepreneurship.

La filière oeuf de table est un secteur d'activité pour de nombreux jeunes entrepreneurs au Bénin. L'objectif de l'étude était d'analyser l'efficience technique et les sources d'inefficience des exploitations des jeunes entrepreneurs produisant des oeufs de table au Bénin. La statistique descriptive et l'approche de frontière stochastique utilisant une spécification de la fonction Cobb Douglas ont été les méthodes utilisées sur des données de panel non cylindrées couvrant la période de 2010 à 2017. Les résultats ont indiqué que le score moyen de l'efficience technique a été de 0,91, traduisant une performance technique élevée des exploitations avicoles dirigées par des jeunes entrepreneurs. Mais le score moyen le plus faible a été de 0,48 tandis que le meilleur score était de 0,97. De plus, un peu moins du tiers des exploitations ont obtenu un score d'efficience technique inférieur à la moyenne. Ce qui montre que des efforts restent à fournir pour améliorer les niveaux actuels d'efficiences techniques de ces exploitations. Les meilleurs scores d'efficience technique étaient obtenus par les exploitations avicoles de grandes tailles ayant reçu une formation professionnelle et faisant recours aux services vétérinaires pour gérer les maladies. En conséquence, l'Etat peut bien s'appuyer sur les jeunes entrepreneurs avicoles pour réaliser son objectif d'accroître la production des oeufs de table. Parmi les actions envisageables, l'appui à l'accroissement de la taille des exploitations avicoles et le renforcement des capacités techniques et managériales des entrepreneurs sont à souligner, avec un accent particulier sur les chefs d'entreprises femmes. The table egg sector is a domain of activity for many young entrepreneurs in Benin. The objective of the study was to analyze the technical efficiency and the sources of inefficiencies of the farms of young entrepreneurs producing table eggs in Benin. The descriptive statistics and the stochastic frontier approach using a specification of the Cobb Douglas function were the methods used on nondisplacement panel data covering the period from 2010 to 2017. The results indicated that the average technical efficiency score was 0.91 reflecting a high technical performance of the poultry farms of young entrepreneurs. But the lowest average score was 0.48 while the best score was 0.97. Almost a third of the farms obtained a technical efficiency score below the average. This shows that efforts remain to be made to improve the current levels of technical efficiency of these farms. The highest technical efficiency scores were obtained by large, large poultry farms that had received professional training and used veterinary services to manage diseases. As a result, the Benin Government may well rely on young poultry entrepreneurs to achieveits goal of increasing the production of table eggs. The actions should contribute to increasing the size of poultry farms and strengthening the technical and managerial capacities of entrepreneurs with a particular focus on women entrepreneurs. ; Peer Review