Laboratoire d’Analyses et de Recherches sur les Dynamiques Economiques et Sociales (LARDES), Faculté d’Agronomie (FA), Université de Parakou (UP), BP 123 Parakou, Benin
This article aims to analyze two soybean production systems based on the use or not of inoculum. To this end, firstly, it was a question of identifying the factors likely to explain the practice of inoculum in soybean production systems and then secondly to assess the economic profit made by producers practicing these production systems. Qualitative as well as quantitative data on socio-economic characteristics and soybean production had been collected from nearly 47 inoculum users and 58 non-users. The logit model as well as the profit indices was estimated using the STATA 13.0 software. The results showed that socioeconomic factors such as the number of agricultural workers (10%) and experience in soybean production (1%) significantly explained the practice of the production system based on the use of inoculum. Likewise, access to agricultural credit was the only institutional factor explaining the 10% threshold for the practice of this system. Compared to the profile, the same system had a net margin of 78,592 FCFA / Ha (p = 0.000) more than the system without the use of inoculum. Furthermore, no significant difference was observed in the benefit-cost ratio (3.29 FCFA for the system with use of inoculum against 3.19 FCFA for the system without use of inoculum). This was due to the costs spent on acquiring the inoculum. The inoculum subsidy would be essential for the future of the soybean industry.