In the late 90s coconut farms in Mozambique were affected by a disease that made the coconut trees drop their leaves and die, the disease is called the coconut lethal yellowing disease (CLYD). It is known that planthoppers are spreading the disease. This thesis investigates if cultivation and farm related factors could have an impact on the risk of being infected by CLYD. With a sample of 534 farms from the two provinces Zambeze and Nampula a logistic regression model is estimated. The result shows that the only factor that has a significant effect of increasing the risk of getting infected by the disease is if farms had other palm species than coconut trees on the plantation. / I slutet av 90-talet drabbades många kokosnötsfarmer i Mocambique av en sjukdom som gjorde att träden började tappa sina löv och till slut dog. Denna sjukdom kallas för ”the coconut lethal yellowing disease” (CLYD). I dagsläget vet man att det är en specifik insekt som sprider denna sjukdom. Denna uppsats undersöker om det finns andra faktorer som kan påverka risken för koksnötsfarmer att drabbas av denna sjukdom, faktorer som är kopplade till farmerna och dess vegetation. Genom ett urval av 534 farmer från de två provinserna Zambezia och Nampula skattades en logistik regression. Resultatet visade att det enbart är en faktor, om plantagen innehåller andra palmsorter, som signifikant ökar risken för att en farm ska drabbas av CLYD.

Coconuts are one of the most economically important plants in Mozambique, where millions of people depend on income from coconuts. The coconut lethal yellowing disease (CLYD) is a highly destructive disease that ever since the early 90’s causes coconut palms in Mozambique to stop producing fruit and leave the coconut farmers with only empty stems. This thesis examines the disease's effect on the farmers’ income, both from coconuts and other complementary sources, since the vendible harvest should decrease with the incidence of the disease. The method used is multivariate linear regression, where several income variables are used as dependent variables. Two models are created, one only interpreted for the sample of 488 observations and one aiming at generalizing the results. By this study, it cannot be confirmed that the incidence of CLYD has a significant effect on coconut farmers’ income. The results from the sample analysis do however show that the income is affected by the degree of the disease, which is an incentive for continued research in the field.