The determinants of participation in savings groups and the impact on input investment among smallholder farmers in Sironko district, Uganda

To promote savings groups (SGs), which are important in promoting financial inclusion among smallholders, it is imperative to understand the factors that affect participation in these SGs and the associated impact in the context of Uganda. This study determined the factors influencing participation in SGs. The study put particular emphasis on the use of SGs as a form of fully-fledged financial services provision to access agro-inputs. The study, therefore, additionally, determined the impact of these SGs on the expenditure on agro-inputs. The study used data collected through a cross-sectional survey from 249 participants. These participants were drawn from Sironko district, Uganda, East Africa. The study employed a Probit model to investigate the determinants of participation and intensity of participation. To estimate the impact of SGs on expenditure on agro-inputs, average treatment effects on the treated (ATT) were calculated after discounting the selection bias between the SGs’ members and non- members. Averagely, SGs incurred 40% of all expenditure on Agro-inputs by SGs’ members. SGs’ members were significantly higher than non-members as regards total expenditure on agro- inputs, per capita expenditure on agro-inputs, and proportion of income spent on agro-inputs. ATT was insignificant and tends to be negative. The main factors that significantly and positively influenced participation included the sex of the head of the household, having a child in secondary school, the number of years in education, the number of dependents, income (in a quadratic form), activity in non-SGs group settings., trusting members in the SGs, and satisfaction with loan amounts accessible from the SGs. The main factors that significantly but negatively influenced participation include agriculture as a v main income source and requirement for support to participate in the SG. Within SGs, being female; number of dependents; receiving a government subsidy; share-out of savings between January and March; and frequency of getting SGs loans the previous year increased the frequency of getting loans. The frequency decreased for participants who were active in RoSCAs and had agriculture as their main source of income. Savings were encouraged by years in education; income and activity in non-SGs group settings. Savings lowered when the participant was female; rented farming land; active in RoSCAs; required support to participate in SGs; share-out of savings between January to March; and the number of loan sources. Important factors that can be addressed at policy level include support for the SGs in the form of training members in SGs’ models, adding to the loans pools; and encouraging activity in any community group setting.