Farmers’ preferential choice decisions to alternative cassava value chain strands in Morogoro rural district, Tanzania

The study was conducted to determine farmers’ preferential choice decision of alternative cassava value chain strands and as well as factors behind such decisions in Morogoro rural District, Tanzania. Factor analysis was first used to reduce and identify the factors (variables for further analysis whereby the factors with highest eigen-value were applied to develop factor scores to measure the attitudinal variables. Results indicate that farmers have positive risk attitude towards participation in the alternative cassava value chain strands for commercialization. A count data model known as Poisson model was applied to determine the factors which influenced this attitude. Results indicated that farm size, experience, female-headed households and land-holding had influenced the farmers’ preferential choice decision. Recommendations for enhancing farmers’ participation in profitable cassava value chain strands are strengthening coordination, provision of improved cassava varieties and introduction of cassava processing technologies.Preferential choice decisions; factor analysis; cassava farmers; risk attitude; Poisson model

Market mechanisms and efficiency in urban dairy products markets in Ghana and Tanzania

This research report presents an analysis of the problems encountered in the milk markets in Ghana and Tanzania. It is based on a study carried out during 1999 and 2000 to identify and quantify the public health risks and economic performance in dairy product markets in these two countries. The study was led by the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). Scientists from the University and Technology (Kumasi, Ghana), the Animal Research Institute (Accra, Ghana), Sokoine University of Agriculture (Morogoro, Tanzania) and the Natural Resources Institute (UK) collaborated in implementing the study. Funding was obtained from the UK Department for International Development-Livestock Production Programme (DFID-LPP). This report is divided into an executive summary and a main section. The summary highlights the methodology used and the main outcomes of the research. Chapter 2 addresses market mechanisms and efficiency and contains the results of the economic and structural analysis. The key findings and achievements of the study. The main report gives a detailed account of the markets. Chapter 3 deals with the milk-borne public health risks, and focuses on the results of laboratory testing of milk and dairy product samples; this chapter also uses some of the economic results in the analysis. Processing of traditional dairy products is the topic addressed in Chapter 4, with a focus on the traditional fresh cheese, wagashi, in Ghana. Chapter 5 presents the impacts of the training activities conducted during the study while Chapter 6 indicates ways in which the project contributed to meeting the research goal. The project team hopes that the technologies and strategies developed in this study will inform development in other similar production and market systems

Farmers’ preferential choice decisions to alternative cassava value chain strands in Morogoro rural district, Tanzania

The study was conducted to determine farmers’ preferential choice decision of alternative cassava value chain strands and as well as factors behind such decisions in Morogoro rural District, Tanzania. Factor analysis was first used to reduce and identify the factors (variables for further analysis whereby the factors with highest eigen-value were applied to develop factor scores to measure the attitudinal variables. Results indicate that farmers have positive risk attitude towards participation in the alternative cassava value chain strands for commercialization. A count data model known as Poisson model was applied to determine the factors which influenced this attitude. Results indicated that farm size, experience, female-headed households and land-holding had influenced the farmers’ preferential choice decision. Recommendations for enhancing farmers’ participation in profitable cassava value chain strands are strengthening coordination, provision of improved cassava varieties and introduction of cassava processing technologies

Africa's changing farm size distribution patterns : the rise of medium-scale farms

This study assesses changes over the past decade in the farm size distributions of Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, drawing on two or more waves of nationally representative population-based and/or area-based surveys. Analysis indicates that much of Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership patterns. Among all farms below 100 hectares in size, the share of land on small-scale holdings under five hectares has declined except in Kenya. Medium-scale farms (defined here as farm holdings between 5 and 100 hectares) account for a rising share of total farmland, especially in the 10–100 hectare range where the number of these farms is growing especially rapidly. Medium-scale farms control roughly 20% of total farmland in Kenya, 32% in Ghana, 39% in Tanzania, and over 50% in Zambia. The numbers of such farms are also growing very rapidly, except in Kenya. We also conducted detailed life history surveys of medium-scale farmers in each of these four countries and found that the rapid rise of medium-scale holdings in most cases reflects increased interest in land by urban-based professionals or influential rural people. About half of these farmers obtained their land later in life, financed by nonfarm income. The rise of medium-scale farms is affecting the region in diverse ways that are difficult to generalize. Many such farms are a source of dynamism, technical change, and commercialization of African agriculture. However, medium-scale land acquisitions may exacerbate land scarcity in rural areas and constrain the rate of growth in the number of small-scale farm holdings. Medium-scale farmers tend to dominate farm lobby groups and influence agricultural policies and public expenditures to agriculture in their favor. Nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) data from six countries (Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Tanzania, and Zambia) show that urban households own 5–35% of total agricultural land and that this share is rising in all countries where DHS surveys were repeated. This suggests a new and hitherto unrecognized channel by which medium-scale farmers may be altering the strength and location of agricultural growth and employment multipliers between rural and urban areas. Given current trends, medium-scale farms are likely to soon become the dominant scale of farming in many African countries.This study was presented at the 29th Triennial International Conference of Agricultural Economists, August 13, 2015, Milan, Italy.The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation through the Guiding Investments in Sustainable Agricultural Intensification in Africa (GISAIA) grant at Michigan State University, and from the Food Security Policy Innovation Lab, funded by USAID's Bureau for Food Security.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1111/(ISSN)1574-08622018-11-30Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Developmen

Smallholder dairy production and marketing of milk in Hai District, Tanzania

Doctor of Philosoph

Smallholder dairy production and marketing of milk in Hai District, Tanzania

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:DX177878 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Socio-economic Status and Women Empowerment in Rural Tanzania: A Case of Onion Value-Chain in Simanjiro District

This paper explores the linkage between women socio-economic status and their empowerment. A total of 402 women completed a household questionnaire, whichwas supplemented with focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Principal Component Analysis (PCA), using SPSS version 16, was applied to the socio-economic data to obtain an index as a proxy for household socio-economic status. A composite women empowerment index was constructed to gauge women empowerment in different spheres, and F-test was used to compare the relationship between women’s socio-economic status and their empowerment. It was found that many respondents were categorized into low to medium levels of empowerment. Relatively, high levels of empowerment were found in aspects of household economic consultation, freedom of movement and political autonomy. Asset ownership andhousing conditions revealed that the poorest were below average in most of the items or services in which the better-off had access or possessed. The relationship between socio-economic status and women empowerment was statistically significant (P<0.05), implying that efforts to improve women's wellbeing that focus on income and asset accumulation have the potential to empower women. Therefore the government, nongovernmental organisations and development programmes espousing to empower women should improve their approach to ensure the poorest also gain opportunities to participate in onion value-chains and in other development interventions.Keywords: women empowerment, socio-economic status, empowerment index, wellbein

Determinants of women empowerment in the onion value chain: a case of Simanjiro district in Tanzania

The impact of women participation in agricultural value chains into their empowerment is poorly understood. This paper explores the linkage between women’s participation in onion value chain development activities and their empowerment. The study involved 402 women of whom 207 (51.2%) were participating in the onion value chain development activities and 195(48.5%) were non non-participants. Data was analyzed using SPSS program, four index scales were constructed to measure women empowerment (personal autonomy, household decision making, economic domestic consultation and freedom of movement). A composite women empowerment index was developed to gauge women empowerment. Women in Simanjiro District were categorized in medium level of empowerment (mean score on CEI = 0.6033). Empowerment was found to increase with education attainment, age at first marriage and women income. Generally, women participating in the value chain development programme were more likely to be empowered than their counterparts. Ordinal logistic regression analysis revealed that there was a significant relationship between women empowerment and marital status, education level, age at first marriage, land ownership, access to credits and participation in onion value chain (P<0.05). The study recommends to the government, non-governmental organization and farmers groups to introduce gender and life skills education in value chain programmes to sensitize and mobilize actors to challenge gender inequalities and promote women empowerment

Mapping of gender roles and relations along onion value chain in northern Tanzania

It is argued that gender roles and relations determine distribution of benefits accrued from ones’ participation in value chain activities. But many value chain programmes are commonly designed and implemented without taking into consideration gender roles and relations. This study analysed onion value chain to determine its impact on gender roles, relations and distribution of income in the chain. The study adopted a mixed-methods design where focus group discussions, key informant interviews and household survey which were the main methods for data collection. Evolution in gender roles especially in production activities was found. Women participation in onion value chain activities, leadership in farmers’ organisation and in decision making over the income accrued from onion production was found to increase following interventions to develop the onion value chain. However, their participation in marketing of onion is constrained by many factors, including limitation on movement placed by their husbands or male partners. This study recommends to government and non-governmental organisations using value chain intervention to address gender roles and relation in value chain development activities to facilitate equitable access by rural producers’ men and women to agricultural inputs as and facilitate access to market of their crops and products. Gender sensitive intervention strategies should be used in forming and strengthening farmer organizations to competitively participate in onion value chain and increase women participation and benefit from onion production