| dc.description |
The cost of investing in agricultural technologies and their opportunity costs
are key drivers of technology adoption by farmers. Integration of many
technologies in the production of a given crop is commonly practiced by many
farmers, yet most studies investigate profitability of single rather than
combinations of technologies. The objective of this paper was to investigate
economic benefits of including legume in rice based cropping system in a
major rice producing region of Morogoro in Tanzania. Data was collected by
interviewing farmers on planting methods, analyzed using descriptive
statistics, gross margin and partial budgeting. Results show that rice is an
important crop in smallholder farming systems, benefit cost ratio was higher
(2.913) when rice was rotated with legumes and was low (1.381) without
rotating with legumes. This study shows that current practices of producing
rice is unprofitable with average yields of 180kg/ha in the nearly season
compared to the last five season of 405kg/ha. Partial budgeting and cost
benefit analysis revealed that introduction of legumes is beneficial and
sustainable leading to increased yield and income by more than 100%. Thus
the inclusion of legumes into rice cropping system offer an ideal option for
maximizing returns in smallholder rice based system. |
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