The effect of local government reform programme on enhancing farmers’ demand for reformed extension services in Kongwa, Bahi, Bukombe and Geita districts in Tanzania

Abstract

Reformed Extension Services were introduced by the Government of Tanzania to improve the delivery of essential farm management skills and technologies in order to bridge the gap between the actual and potential levels of farm productivity. These reforms were brought about through decentralization under the Local Government Reform Programme whereby public services were brought closer to farmers by increasing the number of public extension agents while at the same time, encouraging the private sector to be a major player in providing such services. Despite the adoption of Local Government Reform Programme decentralization agenda that influenced the inception of Reformed Extension Services, low level of crop productivity has been reported. This trend has been one of the major challenges against achieving optimal farm productivity. This made it imperative to assess the effects of this Programme in enhancing farmers’ demand for reformed extension services in four districts of Bahi, Kongwa, Bukombe and Geita. Specifically, the study examined farmers’ satisfaction with the provision of reformed extension services, assessed farmers’ access to the reformed extension services, determined factors that influence their level of accessibility, and lastly determined the effects of the reformed extension services on productivity of key food crops including maize, paddy, and sorghum. A cross-sectional survey was employed to collect data from 272 respondents who were selected through proportionate stratified sampling procedure. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire and key informant interviews. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data while descriptive and multivariate statistics were used to analyse quantitative data. The findings from a Likert scale revealed that the level of farmers’ satisfaction with reformed extension services was higher at 77 against 29percent of dissatisfaction. Likewise, farmers’ satisfaction level was significantly higher than dissatisfaction. The t-test for comparing means between strongly disagree to disagree and agree to strongly agree attitudinal statements were significantly different at p < 0.001. However, there was an increase in the delivery of extension services after the reforms when compared to the times before the reforms. Moreover, a Probit model of decision to access private and public reformed extension services and likewise a zerotruncated Poisson regression model for the level of access to private and public reformed extension services revealed and confirmed the importance of personal and household attributes namely age and household size; farm/plot characteristics such as farm size, farm distance, and land tenure; and socio-economic and institutional factors such as. on-farm training, farmers groups, and access to credits) as important factors in determining access to the reformed extension services. Finally, a linear production function whereby reformed extension services were entered as inputs to farm production, among other inputs, revealed that an increase in key farm inputs, labour in terms of man-days) and capital such as pesticides and machinery, use of fertiliser, irrigation, and improved seeds together with the reformed extension services enhanced farm productivity. Generally, the reformed extension services were observed to be key ingredients in enhancing productivity. Although the Local Government Reform Programme decentralization agenda was a reality in making local government authorities become community-based administration at district levels, not all farmers benefited from the reformed extension services within the study area. Moreover, the reform agenda has shown that the interplay of public and private actors in providing extension services has significantly increased accessibility and farmers’ demand for the improved services. Thus, alongside the public sector efforts, heightening operations of private actors and introduction of Public-Private Partnership arrangements in the provision of extension services, have become competitive, and costeffective. In addition, the reformed extension services have become productivity improving inputs alongside with improving human capacity among farmers. It is therefore recommended that extension services reforms which included engagement of the private sector in the provision of the service should be maintained. Furthermore, it is recommended that future focus of the extension service reforms should be strategic and packaged specifically for individual crops in different agro-climatological zones in Tanzania. This will lead to increase in productivity of these crops in the areas they are produced.