Masters Thesis
Improved seed propagation technologies have been proposed as solution to the poor quality of seedling experienced by vegetable farmers. The use of different technologies among farmers has shown to have economic implications. This study, therefore, was carried out to assess the economic advantages of seed propagation technologies and determine constraints facing farmers in vegetable nursery management in Arumeru and Mvomero districts. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design. A total of 240 vegetable farmers were randomly selected and interviewed with the aid of structured questionnaire. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, partial budget and binary logit model. Results show that seedling trays and nursery beds were technologies used to raise vegetable seedlings in the study areas. However, the use of seedling trays was quite low whereby only about 13% of the vegetable farmers were using them. The partial budget results show that the use of seedling trays have a positive net income of TZS 32 800/tray and TZS 33 700/tray for tomato and sweet pepper respectively, indicating that it will be financially beneficial to switch from the use of nursery beds to seedling trays to raise seedlings. Furthermore, binary logit model results revealed that access to seedling trays (p<0.05), access to credit (p<0.05), marital status (p<0.05) and access to extension service (p<0.05) positively and significantly influenced the choice of vegetable seed propagation technology. Pest and diseases (99%), poor quality of seed (59%) and higher input prices (55%) were the prominent constraints to nursery management in the study area. Based on the findings it can be concluded that seedling trays could be used to raise vegetable seedlings with a view of increasing the efficiency of transplant production.Therefore, it is recommended that the government and
development stakeholders should extend training on technical knowhow aspect of the seedling trays to reach more vegetable farmers.
Innovative Agriculture Research Initiative (iAGRI)