Browsing by Author "Miyashita, Chie"

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Can organic farming be an alternative to improve well-being of smallholder farmers in disadvantaged areas? a case study of Morogoro region, Tanzania
(ISERD, 2015) Miyashita, Chie; Kayunze, Kim Abel
This study assessed the contribution of organic farming to improvements in the well- being of smallholder farmers as measured by crop productivity, profit, and food security among smallholder farmers in Morogoro Region, Tanzania. The results showed that organic farmers had diversified crops and availability of water for irrigation, and they had better selling situation of their crop products. It also showed significant differences in profit and food security between organic and conventional/traditional farmers. Profit among organic farmers was revealed to be more than ten times of profit among conventional/traditional farmers, with less expenditure for farm activity and higher income from their crops. Food security was analysed using food consumption score and dietary energy comsumed, and showed significantly better results among organic farmers. The factors that significantly influenced productivity included sex of the household head, number of household member, access to constant markets, and livestock keeping. The number of years of practising organic farming showed a significant association with profit, and livestock keeping and age of the household head had significant impacts on food security. It was revealed that there are challenges to organic farming, including difficulty of land preparation, access to markets, getting premium price for organic products, and contamination from other non-organic farms. In conclusion, organic farming has the potential to improve the well-being of smallholder farmers in disadvantaged areas, especially with regard to profit and food security. Therefore, it is recommended that more emphasis should be placed on the promotion of organic farming by agricultural stakeholders.
Can organic farming be an alternative to improve well-being of smallholder farmers in disadvantaged areas? a case study of Morogoro region, Tanzania
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2015) Miyashita, Chie
This research was done to assess contribution of organic farming on improving well-being of smallholder farmers through crop productivity, profit and food security among 324 smallholder farmers in Morogoro Region, Tanzania. The specific objectives were to: examine how farmers implement organic farming practices and sell their products; compare productivity, profit and food security between conventional/traditional farmers and organic farmers; determine factors affecting productivity, profit and food security; determine challenges of organic farming; and determine communities’ attitude towards organic products. The results showed that organic farmers had diversified crops and availability of water for irrigation, and they had better selling situation of their crop products. Productivity of maize, cow peas and pumpkins did not show significant differences between organic and conventional/traditional farmers, but profit and food security did. Food security was analysed using food consumption score and dietary energy consumed by organic farmers and showed significantly better results compared to that of conventional/traditional farmers. The factors which influenced productivity significantly were sex of a household head, number of people in a household, constant markets and livestock keeping. Years of practicing organic farming showed significant association with profit, and livestock keeping and age of a household head had significant impacts on food security. It was revealed that there were challenges of land preparation, markets, getting premium price, and contamination with other farms. Customers of a normal market place had similar attitude to that of customers of an organic shop. In conclusion, organic farming has a potential to improve well-being of smallholder farmers in disadvantaged areas especially from the aspects of profit and food security. Therefore, it is recommended that more emphasis should be put on promotion of organic farming by agricultural stakeholders such as the government, agricultural institutions, development institutions and organic farming organizations.