M.Sc. Dissertation
Commercializing the subsistence agriculture is essential for improving the smallholder
farmers‟ productivity in Sub-Saharan African countries including Tanzania. However,
without an adoption of productivity enhancing technologies such as improved seeds,
realization of such an improvement is inevitable. Arguably, for smallholder farmers to
adopt new technologies, they need to feel its impact on their livelihoods. This study
assesses the adoption, commercialization and impact of the bean seeds dressing chemical –
the APRON STAR 42 WS on smallholder farmers‟ food security and nutrition status,
income, and bean yield. A two-stage sampling with stratification was applied to randomly
select a sample of 203 farm households. The propensity score matching was employed to
isolate the impact attributable to adoption of the treated bean seeds among farm
households. Assessment of the decision and extent of commercialization adopted the Tobit
and Cragg‟s double hurdle models. Results indicate that adoption level is about 37%, and
farm size, household size, access extension services and perceived yield effects are
significantly influencing farmers‟ adoption decision of improved seeds. Significant
difference in favour of adopters was found on income, yield, and food security and
nutrition statuses. The variables education, farm size, extension services access, output,
and education; and household size, extension services access, and output were found
significant on influencing decision and extent of commercialization, respectively. Income,
consumption, price of local seeds, and own price elasticities of seeds demand were also
found significant. Thus, it is firstly recommended that, agricultural input intervention
initiatives should emanate from farmers‟ needs in order to make the promotion efforts of
productivity enhancing agricultural technologies efficacious. Secondly, to stimulate the
dormant use of improved seeds, an effective stimulant is own seed price, though with
consideration of production costs to ensure mutual benefits between farmers and seeds
producers.