Peasant grain storage and marketing in Tanzania :a case study of Maize in Sumbawanga District
Loading...
Date
1995
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Au fl. - Berlin
Abstract
Maize is the major staple cereal grain in Tanzania and it plays an important role
in the country's food security and income to smallholder farmers. In response to
the crisis which has faced the agricultural sector since independence in 1961,
reforms in grain marketing were instituted as part of broader macroeconomic
changes beginning in 1984. These liberalisation policies also affected the
smallholder farmers' grain storage and marketing patterns. The main objective
of this research was to investigate peasants' patterns of maize storage and
marketing and the consequent effects of these patterns on spatial and seasonal
efficiency as well as food security and income distribution under the auspices
of liberalisation. The study builds on the concepts of spatial and temporal
efficiency as well as the agricultural household models and uses Sumbawanga,
a maize surplus district, as a case study. Analyses are based on questionnaire
surveys conducted among 120 farmers and 14 traders, weekly price data from
four villages and the main Sumbawanga town market, and monthly loss
assessments of grain stored by 20 farmers in the 1992/93 marketing season.
The study reveals that maize production and storage are mainly undertaken to
meet household consumption and cash needs. Quantity of maize harvested
and household size are the main factors which influence the allocation of maize
between sales and consumption. Due to lack of storage facilities for large-scale
farmers, unreliable market outlets, and liquidity constraints maize sales are
concentrated in the low-price harvest period. Traders play a minimal role in
grain storage due to a lack of capital. The market efficiency analysis revealed
three main aspects: (1) Rural markets in Sumbawanga district are well
integrated into the Sumbawanga town market. However, the degree of
integration differs between villages mainly due to differences in accessibility
and distance from the central markets. (2) Although spatial price differences
are largely a function of the transfer costs there is little possibility for profit
maximisation from maize trade within the district. (3) The temporal price
efficiency is generally low and is lower at nominal interest rates of below 50 %.Consequent of the existing storage and marketing patterns one third of the
sample farmers did not have enough consumption maize to last until the next
harvest. These were forced to buy from the market during the high-price preĀ
harvest season. Policy interventions to increase maize production could assist
in reducing poverty and food insecurity in the distric
Description
Keywords
Maize, Policy, Price policy, Small farms, Trade marketing, Food security, Sumbawanga, Tanzania, Maize production