ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to assess the role of Group Managed Grain Banks in ensuring rural food security. Specifically the study aimed to: describe the grain banks in terms of their functions and constraints, evaluate the contribution of grain banks on food supply consistency and security at household level and analyse operation performance of each grain bank. The study was carried in Dodoma region, using case study design at Kongwa and Chamwino districts. Purposive sampling wa...
ABSTRACT The study was conducted in Bashay irrigation schemes of Mbulu District. The main objective was to determine the profitable crop production options for Bashay irrigation scheme. A cross sectional single-visit survey involving 100 farmers from Mangisa and Diyomat villages was conducted representing up and down stream respectively. Descriptive Statistics, Gross Margin, Multiple Regression and Linear Programming model were used as analytical tools. The findings revealed that majority (6...
ABSTRACT The improved technologies and other practices in agricultural production are often recognized as critical in addressing food insecurity and poverty. Conservation agriculture has emerged as an alternative to conventional agriculture as a result of losses in soil productivity due to soil degradation. This study was conducted in order to determine the economic performance of conservation as compared to conventional agricultural practices in Southern Uluguru Mountains in Morogoro region...
ABSTRACT Pulses are the major source of income to farmers and nutrients to people and animals. Pulses also offer natural maintenance benefits in the soil. In spite of economic and nutritional importance its consumption is low and has been decreasing over time. This study investigated not only factors underlying pulses consumption but also its consumption pattern. Data used in the analysis were collected by the National Bureau of Statistics in 2010/11 which covered 21 regions in Tanzania main...
ABSTRACT The global markets are increasingly being integrated due to globalization and liberalisation. Drastic changes prompted by technological change are daily transpiring in the agricultural produce marketing which put smallholder farmers’market survival at stake. The notable changes are manifested in terms of value addition and product differentiation. This study was undertaken to identify factors that determine milk value chain choice amongst smallholder dairy in Iringa and Tanga urba...
ABSTRACT A Warehouse Receipt System (WRS) is important in a paddy value chain because the commodity requires storage before it reaches consumers. Furthermore, a WRS may enhance speed of transactions and lower costs along the supply chain. However, little is known about the overall profit efficiency of paddy-rice farmers using warehouses. This study investigates the profit of the farmers in Kilombero District by examining the role of WRS on profit. In this study, a stochastic profit frontier ...
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...