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Agriculture is the foundation of Tanzanian economy, which accounts for more than
one-quarter of GDP, provides 85% of exports, and employs about 80% of the work
force. Despite this strategic importance, agriculture in Tanzania faces a number of
challenges, one of such challenges being limited market access, largely attributed to
lack of access and use of market information by commodity chain actors, farmers
being the most disadvantaged group.
A study was conducted with an aim to assess the accessibility and contribution of
agricultural marketing information to the income of small scale farmers in Tanzania.
The agricultural marketing information referred during this study are information on
prices for the produce cultivated, information of traders who need farm crops
(demand information), information on agricultural loan and information about
extension services
A sample of 215 farmers from three villages which are Nyandira in Mvomero district
of Morogoro region, Kinole village in Morogoro rural district of Morogoro region
and Kibaigwa in Kongwa district of Dodoma region were used during this study.
These farmers were categorized in three groups basing on the locations and crops
produced which are vegetables, fruits and cereals.
Secondary data was collected through documentary review while primary data was
collected using questionnaires. Descriptive statistics and One-Way Analysis of
Variance (ANOVA) was used to analyze the data. Data from questionnaire was
coded and analyzed using Statistical Packages for Social Science (SPSS).
Generally the findings from the study indicate that agricultural marketing
information are less accessible to farmers, 51.8% of the sample shown that they
poorly access agricultural marketing information.
Assessing accessibility of agricultural marketing information basing on location and
among producers of vegetable, fruits and cereals, findings of the study indicate that
there is a significance difference in accessibility of agricultural marketing
information among farmers who are located in different areas.
Generally results of the study indicate that farmers who have access to agricultural
marketing information have been increasing the production and sales volume of the
crops but also selling their crops at relatively higher price. Findings shows that
access to agricultural marketing information contribute to the increase of income for
farmers.
Findings show that agricultural marketing information is a requirement for farmers in
the village, in order to improve accessibility of this information to farmers, the
government and private sector need to introduce, sensitize and promoted Market
information systems in villages where farmers live. |
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