Theses and Dissertations

Commercialization of Smallholder Agriculture in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania

2024-10-10T10:06:32Z

Commercialization of Smallholder Agriculture in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania Mpogole, H.; Kauki, B.; Ngilangwa, E.; Mandara, c.; Namwata, Baltazar M; Hauli, E. Tanzania seeks to achieve a semi-industrialized economy by 2025. In this envisioned economy, commercialization of smallholder agriculture, which provides the necessary raw materials and a market for industrial products is key. However, commercialization of smallholder agriculture remained a challenge. As such, it was not clear regarding how do smallholders commercialize, which smallholder farmers commercialize and to what extent, and what are the drivers of change. This study sought to understand processes of commercialization of agriculture among smallholder farmers. The specific objectives were fivefold: first, to identify smallholder farmers’ asset ownership characteristics; second, to find out smallholder farmers’ agricultural production practices; third, to analyze existing models of commercialization of smallholder agriculture; fourth, to analyze existing linkages between smallholder farmers and medium and large scale farmers and agro-industries; and, fifth, to examine smallholder farmers’ perceptions on commercial agriculture. The study was conducted in eight villages of Kilolo and Iringa Districts in the southern highlands of Tanzania. A survey of 206 smallholder farmers, eight Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and six Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were conducted. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, linear regression and Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA). Qualitative data were analyzed according to emerging themes looking for patterns across groups and key differences or unexpected findings. The study established that men dominate in crops that are produced for commercial purposes. Most of smallholders own rudimentary farm equipment mainly a hand hoe. More youth than adults are engaged in commercial agriculture. The engagement of energetic youth in commercial agriculture is likely to be a viable approach to enhance productivity, value addition and competitiveness of the sector. Traditional surplus selling, farmer groups, middlemen, and contract farming as well as individual farmers’ commercial production are the most common models of commercialization. Smallholder farmers are not necessarily producing for the market but sold any accrued surplus to meet their basic requirements hence, having one foot in subsistence and another foot in the market.. In terms of linkages with medium and large-scale producers and processors, smallholder farmers prefer direct linkages through direct selling, contract farming, and brokers. Most of such linkages are common at initial stages of investment but gradually fade away as investors start to produce their own inputs or raw materials. Given the opportunity, some smallholder farmers were willing to quit their own farming activities to provide labor to medium and large-scale producers and processors. Quitting their own farming over employment is viewed as a positive move among smallholders. This implies that smallholders did not consider farming as a business, which is deterrent to commercialization efforts. Despite the potential for commercialization, access to capital and extension services are the main challenges facing smallholder farmers. The study recommends for continued emphasis to enhance smallholder farmers’ access to farm technology, affordable capital as well as extension services. Also, efforts of the government to enhance commercialization of smallholders should identify farmers with market orientation who are ready to go commercial. Smallholders who are willing to quit their own farming if alternative employment opportunities were available are not the kind of farmers to target the interventions if true commercialization is to take place.

A study of some aspects of dairy management practices of farmers in Morogoro rural district: A case study of Surude and HIP beneficiaries in Turiani division

2024-10-11T06:17:06Z

A study of some aspects of dairy management practices of farmers in Morogoro rural district: A case study of Surude and HIP beneficiaries in Turiani division Safari, John G.; Lekule, F.P.; Sarwatt, S.V.; Mollel, E.L.; Makauki, A.F. A study on some management practices of dairy cattle by smallholder farmers was done in Turiani division, Morogoro (R) district. The study objective justified adoption of a cross-sectional research design. As the main instrument for data collection, a structured questionnaire was administered to total of 40 respondents who were beneficiaries of Heifer-In-Trust scheme under two non-governmental organisations (NGOs) namely The Foundation for Sustainable Rural Development (SURUDE) and Heifer Project International (HPI). It was observed that majority of the respondents (100 % for SURUDE and 95 % for HPI) had adopted zero grazing system, feeding their animals mainly on natural pasture. Generally, 60 % of the respondents were found to provide feed supplements such as hominy feed, sunflower seed cake (SSC) and minerals to their animals. However, the distribution was statistically (P<0.05) skewed towards SURUDE more than HPI for SSC (i.e. 75 Vs 40). Natural mating was the only breeding method practiced by both groups of farmers. Whereas 25 % of farmers under HPI reported to serve their cows more than twice per conception, the proportion for those under SURUDE was only 10 %. Long calving interval (CI) was also reported by both groups of farmers. A CI of 12 - 13 months was reported by only 15 % of farmers under HPI and none under SURUDE. Only 5 % of farmers under HPI reported a CI exceeding 24 months, which was reported by 20 % of farmers under SURUDE. The common disease control measures in the area were spraying with acaricide and deworming, but both were not regularly practised. Record keeping was another management practice, which differed between the two NGOs. It was concluded therefore that dairy management practices in Turiani were generally not well performed and they differed between beneficiaries of HPI and those of SURUDE. A Full text article from the collection of Community and Rural Development

Exit strategies and sustainability of local institutions in Tanzania: Experiences from World Vision Tanzania in Bahi District

2024-08-27T12:04:46Z

Exit strategies and sustainability of local institutions in Tanzania: Experiences from World Vision Tanzania in Bahi District Mkomagi, Jeremiah V.; Namwata, Bartazar L.; Masanyiwa, Zacharia S. In recent years, the use of exit strategies in development interventions has been welcomed as a mechanism for creating strong and sustainable local institutions upon ending of donor support. This paper discusses the sustainability of exit strategies in donor funded rural development projects using a case of Chipanga Area Development Programme, which was sponsored by World Vision Tanzania. The study involved 110 respondents. Data were collected through questionnaire, interviews, documentary analysis and focus group discussions. Analysis of qualitative data was done through content analysis whereas quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive analysis using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The study results show that most of the project activities were not continued by the local institutions to which World Vision Tanzania „phased over‟ its interventions to as anticipated. Thus, the exit strategy adopted by the donor agency was generally not sustainable because of managerial, technical, financial and human capacity weaknesses in the local institutions set in place. A number of contextual factors including late formulation and implementation of the exit strategies, inadequate capacity building, failure of local leaders to assume office, and absence of feasible plans for resource generation affected sustainability of the local institutions. A full text article from the collection of Community and Rural Development

Entrepreneurship education and the potential of technical graduates to venture into business start-ups in Tanzania

2024-02-02T06:05:54Z

Entrepreneurship education and the potential of technical graduates to venture into business start-ups in Tanzania Nzilano, Kelvin L. Despite concerted efforts to integrate entrepreneurship education into the education system to address graduates’ unemployment challenges through business start-ups, its effectiveness in facilitating technical graduates’ acquisition of entrepreneurial competencies critical to venture into business start-ups remains questionable. Grounded on Human Capital Theory (HCT), Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB), and Institutional Theory (IT) as theoretical frameworks, this study empirically examines the effectiveness of entrepreneurship education in facilitating technical graduates’ acquisition of entrepreneurial competencies and their potential to venture into business start-ups. Specifically, the thesis (i) examines factors influencing entrepreneurial competencies acquisition among graduates, (ii) ascertains the influence of entrepreneurial competencies on business start-up intentions as mediated by TPB antecedents, (iii) measures how entrepreneurship education moderates the effect of TPB antecedents on business start-up intentions, and (iv) examines the influence of university support on graduates’ business start-up intentions as mediated by institutional environment. Underpinned by the positivism paradigm and quantitative research strategy, this thesis employs a cross-sectional research design and collects data using a self-administered survey questionnaire from 391 technical graduates who graduated between 2012 and 2017 and who lived in Dar es Salaam during data collection. The collected data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM), and Ordered Logistic Regression Model (OLRM). The findings show that entrepreneurship education significantly facilitates entrepreneurial competencies acquisition (p < 0.001). Specifically, technical graduates who studied at least two entrepreneurship courses were more than 10 times more likely to acquire requisite entrepreneurial competencies than those who did not study. Informal entrepreneurship exposure through life-cycle experience in age (p < 0.001), previous employment experience (p < 0.01), and parental role modelling through self employment (p < 0.05) and education (p < 0.05) positively and significantly facilitate the acquisition of entrepreneurial competencies among technical graduates. Moreover, entrepreneurial competencies had a direct significant effect not only on the attitudes towards business start-ups (p < 0.001) and perceived behavioural control (p < 0.05) but also on technical graduates’ intentions to venture into business start xix ups (p < 0.001). However, attitudes towards business start-ups (p < 0.05) and perceived behavioural control (p < 0.001) strongly mediated the effect of entrepreneurial competencies on technical graduates’ intentions to venture into business start-ups. Perceived behavioural control (52.1%) was the strongest predictor of technical graduates’ business start-up intentions followed by attitudes towards business start-ups (28.9%) and subjective norms (11.5%). Entrepreneurship education significantly moderates the effect of attitudes towards business start-ups (p < 0.001) and perceived behavioural control (p < 0.001) on graduates’ business start-up intentions, but not subjective norms (p > 0.05). The findings further highlight that only 30.2% of technical graduates’ business start-up intentions transitioned to actual business start-ups and that limited capital, perceived high taxes, unfriendly regulatory frameworks, and little awareness of business support services are the main obstacles hindering their potential. Lastly, university support through concept development support (p < 0.001) and institutional support (p < 0.001) had a direct effect on graduates’ business start-up intentions. However, institutional support partially mediates the effects of university support on business start-up intentions through concept development support (p < 0.001), but fully mediates education provision support (p < 0.001) and business development support (p < 0.05). Based on the findings, the thesis concludes as follows: First, entrepreneurship education is an effective intervention strategy in facilitating entrepreneurial competencies acquisition and technical graduates’ intentions to pursue business start-ups. Second, attitudes toward start-ups and perceived behavioural control strongly mediate the effect of entrepreneurial competencies on technical graduates’ business start-up intentions. Third, besides the direct effect of attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioural control on business start-up intentions, entrepreneurship education strongly moderates their effect on graduates’ business start-up intentions. Fourth, university and institutional support play critical roles in fostering graduates’ potential to venture into business start-ups. The thesis presents three implications. First, the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology should issue special directives to all educational institutions to make at least two entrepreneurship courses compulsory for all students from primary schools to universities. Second, technical universities should spearhead the establishment of business incubation centers and innovation spaces for graduates to innovate and test the feasibility of business ideas before further investment. Third, Local Government Authorities should strive to improve business start-up ecosystems to motivate university graduates and the general public to pursue business start-ups to minimize unemployment challenges.