Determinants Of Zonal Competitiveness And Comparative Economic Advantage Of Rice Production In Unguja And Pemba

ABSTRACT

Rice is the main food staple in Zanzibar, accounting for about 54 percent of the total caloric intake. Zanzibar imports about 80 percent of its rice requirements. Based on the potential of 3 tons per hector in rain fed and 6 tons per hector in irrigated rice. The government of Zanzibar intends to reduce external dependency from current 80 to 40 percent as part of country’s food self-sufficiency goal. This study intends to inform policy by providing quantitative evidence about farming system zones where the potential can be exploited to increase production profitably and by using domestic factors efficiently. The specific objectives of the study were: - (i) To determine technical and socio-economic characteristics that differentiate rice farmers in terms of yield in central north, central south and zone 3 Pemba farming system zones; (ii) To analyse the competitiveness of rice production under different technological packages in central north, central south and zone 3 Pemba; (iii) To analyse the comparative economic advantage of rice production under different technological packages in central north, central south and zone 3 Pemba; and (iv) To examine the level of protection of the rice sub-sector in central north, central south and zone 3 Pemba. The study used 3-stage sampling with stratification to draw 464 rice farmers. The analytical tools used to address the study objectives were: Descriptive analysis and Policy Analysis Matrix. The result shows that 90 percent of rice farmers using irrigation, improved seeds and fertilizer fall in the high yield category in all three zones, while rice farmers using rain fed and local seeds only are higher in low yield category in all farming system zones (P