Economics of improved fodder production under different production treatments at ASAS farm in Iringa region, Tanzania
| dc.contributor.author | Mbwaga, Aurelia Issack | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2022-08-16T07:03:28Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2022-08-16T07:03:28Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2022 | |
| dc.description | Dissertation | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Tanzania is an agricultural country, and nearly three-fourths of her population depends on agriculture for livelihood. In Tanzania, dairy farmers do not often meet their all-year- round animal feed demand from on-farm production. This is due to several reasons including large livestock numbers for the available fodder and low yields from forages because of the seasonality of rainfall and or poor fodder production practices. Due to the fodder shortage, farmers have engaged in fodder production. Fodder production combined with different agronomic practices has been going on to alleviate the problem in the country. However, there is a paucity of knowledge on the economics of fodder production in the study area. This study was conducted to estimate Rhodes yield and analyze the economics of fodder production under different production treatments (cost-benefit analysis), including Treatment one (T 1 ) Control, Treatment two (T 2 ) Cattle Farm Yard Manure (CFYM), Treatment three (T 3 ) CFYM +Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Sulphur and Zinc (NPSZn), Treatment four (T 4 ) NPSZn, Treatment five (T 5 ) NPSZn +Sulphate of Ammonium (SA) and Treatment six (T 6 ) NPSZn + Urea. Data were recorded from each plot of 0.01 hectares, to establish costs and returns per each 0.01 hectare. Cost-benefit analysis was used to establish costs and benefits accrued per each plot. The findings show that, fodder production by the ASAS Dairies Limited was more beneficial than the alternative source of purchasing it from fodder sellers. Treatment (T 3 ) which is CFYM+NPSZn and Treatment (T 6 ) which is NPSZn + Urea of the experiments yielded the highest returns with the Net Present Values (NPVs) of TZS 599 129.6 and TZS 964 429.3 respectively; Benefit Cost Ratio (BCRs) of 1.4 and 1.8 respectively; and Internal Rate of Return (IRR) of 15% and 16% respectively. The two treatment methods also registered higher yields of 16.31 tons per hectare and 20.878 tons per hectare, respectively, compared to other methods of treatment. It is concluded that higher yield is obtained when Rhodes grass are grown and using Cattle Farm Yard Manure mixed with NPSZn or NPSZn mixed with Urea. It is recommended that with the experiments, companies may produce enough fodder for themselves and extra to sell to other livestock keepers. Moreover, smallholder dairy farmers should embark on improved fodder production systems to bridge the existing dairy feed gap. | en_US |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Collaborative Masters Programme in Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAAE) | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/123456789/4411 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.publisher | Sokoine University of Agriculture | en_US |
| dc.subject | Different production treatments | en_US |
| dc.subject | Milk treatment | en_US |
| dc.subject | Dairy farmers | en_US |
| dc.subject | ASAS Dairies Farm Limited | en_US |
| dc.title | Economics of improved fodder production under different production treatments at ASAS farm in Iringa region, Tanzania | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |