ABSTRACT The study was conducted in Sumbawanga Rural District in Rukwa region. Its objective was to examine the influence of grain quality and standards in maize trading. Specifically, to find the significance of maize cleaning, grading and standardizing in grain marketing, to examine the significance of the road condition in determining maize buyers’ accessibility to buying posts and the significance of the number of maize buyers in fluctuating farmers’ maize selling price. Purposive mu...
ABSTRACT Agricultural sector in Tanzania and elsewhere in sub-Saharan Africa is dominated by smallholder farmers. This has made the smallholder-led growth strategy to be widely accepted as the pathway for achieving economic transformation and mass poverty reduction in Africa. Recently, however, concerns have been raised on the validity of favouring small farmers because small-scale farming in Africa has historically provided very low returns to labour. Also unlike earlier findings of the inv...
ABSTRACT Malnutrition is among the serious health problems affecting infants, children and women of reproductive age in Tanzania. Various approaches have been adopted to address this problem. Such approaches include; importation of food, food aid and medical treatment. Despite these efforts, however, millions of Tanzanians particularly women and children continue to suffer from one or more forms of malnutrition. Agriculture has been currently taken as great measure to harness malnutrition am...
ABSTRACT Generally in Tanzania consumers prefer local chickens and pay premium prices compared to other chickens due to the perception that local chicken tastes better, nutritious and organically raised. However, productivity levels of local chicken are low resulting to low outputs hence limiting their potential for commercialization. For that reason, the African Chicken Genetic Gain program has recently introduced tropically adapted improved chicken including Sasso, Kuroiler and Black austr...
ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to examine the level of technical efficiency of smallholder pearl millet producers and identify its determinants in the semi-arid farming system of Dodoma, Tanzania. A Translog stochastic production function model was used in the analysis. To specify technical inefficiency effects of socioeconomic variables, Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) technique using cross sectional data collected from 300 randomly selected sample farmers in 2016 was applied....
ABSTRACT This study analyzed Irish potato value chains so as to identify potential areas for interventions towards improving income for the various actors involved in the chain in Njombe Urban and Wanging’ombe districts. Data were collected from 202 Irish potato value chains actors using individual interview and focused group discussions (FGD). Sub sector mapping, gross margin analysis and regression analysis were used in the study. Subsector mapping analysis was used to map Irish potato v...
ABSTRACT A study was carried out to assess the profitability of improved banana cultivars in Rungwe, Mvomero and Mkuranga districts. Specifically, the study aimed at comparing benefits of improved versus non improved banana cultivars production, determining the contribution of banana enterprise to total household income, assessing the factors that influence banana household income, assessing the changes in gender roles in improved banana farming system and suggesting the system of distributi...
ABSTRACT Although, agriculture remains the main source of income and employment in developing countries, it is a universally accepted fact that agricultural sector is incapable of creating sufficient income in the middle of increasing population. Thus, the non-farm sector is increasingly becoming important. Generally, the study assessed the effects of non-farm activities to household income in purposefully selected rapidly urbanizing villages in Mufindi District, namely; Nyololo Shuleni, Lug...
ABSTRACT High tunnel technology has been heralded as the panacea to propel medium and small scale tomato production due to high levels of efficiency and the potential to support sustainable socio-economic development in the face of current daunting challenges and opportunities to which farmers respond. However, despite the comparative advantages offered by the technology, its adoption by farmers has been far less than satisfactory. A study was therefore carried out to investigate constraints...
ABSTRACT The study was carried out to determine the economic performance of beekeeping enterprises and their contribution to livelihood focused on level of income that a household earn from beekeeping in Songea district of Ruvuma region in Tanzania. Specifically the study was sought to (i)Determine the income generated from beekeeping enterprises in the study area, (ii) Determine the viability of a beekeeping enterprise in the study area, (iii) Determine the contribution of beekeeping on the...
ABSTRACT Consumers’ preferences for food products are always based on observable and nonobservable attributes. Common beans which are globally important for income generation as well as food and nutrition security, appeal to consumers in different ways. One important distinction of this nature is with respect to colour, size, cooking time and gravy quality. When multiple common beans’ varieties with varying attribute levels are exposed, consumers normally select multiple varieties on the...
ABSTRACT The study was conducted in eastern part of Uluguru Mountains, Tanzania between December 2007 and March 2008. The main objective was to examine natural resource base and agricultural production options in Uluguru Mountains. A cross sectional single-visit survey involving 120 farmers from Konde, Tawa and Kiswila villages was conducted in each village representing high, medium and low altitude respectively. Differences in accessibility to the market were also considered when drawing a ...
ABSTRACT The Research investigates the effect of collapse of international coffee agreement (ICA) and liberalization of coffee marketing in Tanzania on coffee prices. The motivation for this analysis is that the ICA regulatory system reduced price volatility by encouraging the build-up of stocks during surplus years and its demise meant allowing coffee prices to vary based on the market forces of supply and demand. Also the purpose of liberalizing coffee marketing in Tanzania was to enhance ...
ABSTRACT Input loan plays a vital role on economic transformations to cotton farming households. However, their acquisition and repayment are characterized by numerous challenges, including high defaults among beneficiaries. This study intended to examine factors contributing to low loan repayment on cotton inputs; and sought to improve its supply to farmers in Bariadi district. Primary and secondary data were collected from farmers and ginners respectively. A purposive and two stage stratif...
ABSTRACT Providing agro- ecologically adaptive, low-inputs and high productive chickens in terms of eggs and meat remain critical to transforming smallholder chicken farmers in developing countries from subsistence to commercial production. The provision of such chickens will ultimately bring diverse benefits such as increased income and improved nutrition to society. This study was aimed at analysing the value chain for agro-ecologically adaptive, low inputs and productive chicken in Lindi...