Yemen is a less-developed country in the Arabian Peninsula, with only 3%
arable land. An agroforestry land-use system has been practiced traditionally
by small-scale farmers, but is associated with low productivity and income. A
study has been undertaken to determine the socio-economic attributes of
farmers that influence the financial performance of agroforestry and nonagroforestry farms in the Bura’a Mountain region. A survey was conducted of
150 farmers involved in both agroforestry and non-agroforestry. Both OLS
and WLS regression were applied, and coefficients compared in terms of
consistency and goodness of fit. Incomes of farmers were found to be
influenced by education, area of land, livestock holding, family size, and
whether coffee is grown, but not farmer’s age. The WLS method produced
efficient and consistent results, whereas OLS regression was affected by the
heteroscedasticity. The findings of the study indicate that the farmers of the
study area are in need of financial and technical support from government to
increase their income. Infrastructural development and public intervention in
developing farmers’ technical know-how could enhance production and
ensure the optimum use of land as well as soil and water conservation.