Economic analysis of alternative sources of energy for tobacco curing in Tabora urban district, Tabora region.
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Date
2019
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
The growth of tobacco production in Tanzania has become a threat to the woodlands due
to the amount of firewood used for curing the crop. The overall objective of the research
was to assess the economic feasibility of substituting firewood with sawdust and/or rice
husks in curing tobacco. The specific objectives were to: (1) determine calorific values of
sawdust briquettes, rice husk briquettes and firewood, (2) examine quality of tobacco
cured by sawdust briquettes, rice husk briquettes and firewood, (3) compare curing costs
for the three biomass. A Bomb Calorimeter was used to determine the calorific values of
all energy sources. The grade indices were determined by dividing the value of tobacco in
each harvest/reaping per hectare to the weight of dry tobacco per hectare. The grade
indices produced by each biomass was compared by using t-test to see if they were
statistically different. The curing costs were compared by using t-test to see if they were
statistically different. The results indicated that there was no significant difference at
p>0.05 between the quality of tobacco cured by sawdust briquettes and that which was
cured by firewood. There was significant difference in curing costs at p<0.05. The study
therefore concludes that the heat content within the sawdust briquette was able to remove
the amount of water in green tobacco leaf, the quality of tobacco cured by sawdust
briquettes was the same as the quality of tobacco cured by firewood and the difference in
curing cost was brought about by the differences in amount of biomass required to cure
tobacco, the differences in distance where these biomass were collected and the
differences in labour days required in curing tobacco. The study recommended the
adoption of the use of sawdust briquettes in curing tobacco in order to reduce
deforestation rate.
Description
A Dissertation 2019
Keywords
Economic analysis, Alternative sources-energy, Tobacco curing, Tabora urban district, Tabora region