Community Participation In Implementation Of District Agriculture Sector Investment Project (Dasip) In Shinyanga District Council, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

Community participation in development projects is currently more emphasized by the Government of Tanzania in order to enable local people participate in all project stages. The overall purpose of this study was to examine the community participation in implementation of the District Agriculture Sector Investment Project (DASIP) in Shinyanga District Council. Specifically, the study sought to: (a) identify socioeconomic characteristics of households associated with community participation, (b) determine the level of community in implementation of village micro-projects, (c) examine the attitudes of community towards participation in implementation of village micro-projects, and (d) examine constraints that hindered community in implementation of village micro-projects. The structured interview was used as the main method of data collection from 120 respondents who were randomly selected. The collected data were analyzed using quantitative and qualitative approaches. The findings of the study showed that education level, main occupation, previous experience, livestock possession and awareness of community on government emphasis had statistical significant relationship to community participation. The majority (56.7%) of the respondents scored low and medium participation levels in implementation of village micro-projects, while 43.3% scored high participation level. The study also revealed that the respondents had positive attitude towards community participation in implementation of micro-projects. On the other hand, the major constraints that hindered community in implementation of the project subsume: (a) contributions for construction of Ward Secondary Schools, (b) delay submission of building maps from Mwanza (the national project headquarter), (c) food insecurity, and (d) water shortage during dry season. The study recommends that there is a need of mobilizing community members to increase their participation levels in implementation of village micro-projects; and both Government and project leaders at ii all levels (village-national) should jointly facilitate community members to solve major constraints.