Economic and institutional factors affecting smallholder farmers’ income from orange production in Muheza district, Tanzania
Loading...
Date
2016
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
This study analyzed economic and institutional factors affecting income of smallholder farmers from orange production, who can be characterized as income poor, in Muheza district, arrangements and their influence on prices and incomes of orange farmers; transaction costs and how they affect incomes of orange farmers; the effects of intrinsic characteristics of smallholder orange farmers and their organization settings on farmers’ income; and orange market performance in the study area. Primary data were collected using open and close ended questions which were administered to 152 smallholder farmers and 62 traders. A check list was used to collect primary data from 25 key informants. The collected data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative approaches. Gross margin (GM) and multiple regression analysis methods were adopted for data analysis. The overall results showed that smallholder farmers are still facing high transaction costs in Muheza district. the arrangements which are being applied by orange farmers. The results showed that contracts are signed while farmers have no price information from urban markets. This subjects farmers into getting low farm gate prices and hence affecting their incomes from orange business. Similarly, farmers’ organizations are not strong enough to influence profitable contracts to members. Econometric results indicate that tree bearing oranges (P 0.01), orange quantity marketed (P 0.01), orange price received (P 0.01), and transport cost (P 0.01) are the main intrinsic factors influencing incomes in orange farming. Gross margin results show that wholesalers had the highest profit figure of Tsh 43.86 per orange, followed by retailers (Tsh 40.23) and farmers (Tsh 18.32). Based on the key findings, the study recommends that the government should intervene specifically in the reduction of transaction costs and the risks of doing orange business by improving economic and institutional factors. There is need to ensure that a suitable business in Tanzania. More specifically, the study analyzed orange institutional Contract arrangements and farmers’ organizations were main institutional iii environment is available in empowering smallholder farmers to do orange marketing in Tanzania. If all these recommendations are implemented, then improvement in the income from oranges would ultimately be realized
Description
Keywords
Orange production, Farmers’ income, Small-holder farmers, Orange farmers