Feasibility Analysis Of Vegetable Seed Propagation Technologies In Arumeru And Mvomero Districts, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Improved seed propagation technologies have been proposed as solution to the poor quality of seedling experienced by vegetable farmers. The use of different technologies among farmers has shown to have economic implications. This study, therefore, was carried out to assess the economic advantages of seed propagation technologies and determine constraints facing farmers in vegetable nursery management in Arumeru and Mvomero districts. The study adopted a crosssectional research design. A total of 240 vegetable farmers were randomly selected and interviewed with the aid of structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, partial budget and binary logit model. Results show that seedling trays and nursery beds were technologies used to raise vegetable seedlings in the study areas. However, the use of seedling trays was quite low whereby only about 13% of the vegetable farmers were using them. The partial budget results show that the use of seedling trays have a positive net income of TZS 32 800/tray and TZS 33 700/tray for tomato and sweet pepper respectively, indicating that it will be financially beneficial to switch from the use of nursery beds to seedling trays to raise seedlings. Furthermore, binary logit model results revealed that access to seedling trays (p