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Despite various efforts by international non-governmental, local public and private
institutions towards the research and development of improved crop technologies, the use
of improved seeds in Tanzania is still low hence low agricultural productivity among
smallholder farmers. The general objective for this study was to identify the most
preferred improved maize seed varieties and the determinants for the demand for those
improved seeds in rural mainland Tanzania so as to suggest measures which could be used
to enhance their use in the country. Given that, maize seed industry in Tanzania is one of
the major staple crop industries, the present study therefore specifically focused on
identifying the most preferred improved maize seed varieties and also the determinants of
improved maize seed demand in rural mainland Tanzania. The present study specified and
estimated improved maize seed adoption and demand model simultaneously using the
national panel survey data for 2012-13-crop season. The survey covered 3 265 households
as representative at the national, urban/rural, and major agro-ecological zones but for the
case of this study rural mainland households were the main focus. Therefore, 2 124 rural
mainland households were the sample size for this study. Results show that KITO, PAN
6195, PAN 6549, SC 621, SC 627, SC 713, SITUKA 2, SITUKA-M1, STAHA, KILIMA,
DK 8071 and KATUMANI, SITUKA-M1, TMV2 were the most preferred improved
maize varieties across agro-ecological zones. Furthermore, the results suggest that distance
to the market, farm size (adoption rate), and credit access and household size significantly
influence farmer’s seed purchase decisions. Therefore, joint estimation of technology
adoption and seed demand provides holistic methodology to identification of relevant
factors that determine seed uptake at the farm level. It’s recommended that, private
companies should consider investing more in agricultural extension services given a
limited government extension services. Furthermore, it’s recommended that seed companies should ensure seed availability at locations nearer to the farmers so as to
improve adoption rate and subsequent seed demand. |
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