Establishing farmers’ goals is important for increased productivity and profitability in sugarcane production. This study aimed at establishing farmers’ goals and their relationship with farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics for increased productivity. The study used primary data collected from 147smallholder sugarcane farmers. This study employed factor analysis to generate goal orientations of farmers. The findings of the study revealed that the majority of the farmers interviewed were females (57%), with 39% of farmers’ attained secondary education, average mean age of 56 years, farming experience of 10 years and cultivate about 4.5 hectares of sugarcane. Farmers’ goal orientations generated were instrumental orientation, sustainable orientation, family and leisure orientation, expressive orientation and social status orientation. Farmers’ socioeconomic characteristics including gender, age and education, occupation, farming experience and off-farm income are the major drivers of perceived farmers’ goals. The study therefore recommends formulating rural development programmes and policies that target young farmers’ engagement and participation in sugarcane production and consider farmers’ oriented goals and socio-economic factors for increased productivity.

Keywords: efficiency, farmers’ goals, principal component, smallholder farmers, sugarcane