Browsing by Author "Msinde, J. V."

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Farm and off-farm linkages: The effect of off- farm employment on farm inputs and labour allocation in Kilombero valley, Tanzania
(College of Social Sciences and Humanities, 2020-05-03) Msinde, J. V.; Urassa, J. K.; Nathan, I
Engaging in off-farm employment among farming households may either have a competing effect or complementary effect with households’ own farm work. Both effects have implications on the household's ability to enhance farm investment and reduce poverty. This study first examines the role of off-farm employment on financing farm inputs, and secondly, it assesses the effects of labour devoted to off-farm employment on a household’s farm labour supply. The survey data from 309 randomly selected farming households in five villages of the Kilombero Valley were used. Tobit model that considers cornered solution has been used. Results from the econometric estimation show that holding other factors constant, the increase of non-farm self-employment income is associated with more expenditure on inputs. Qualitative evidence, however, suggests that some forms of labour-demanding off-farm employment such as those related to farm wage have an undesirable labour effect on labour supply on households’ farms, with repercussions onfarm productivity. It is recommended that rural development policies should establish synergy between farm and off-farm activities taking into account the effect of both income and labour on off-farm employment.
Farm-off-farm linkages: Contribution of off-farm employment to farm inputs expenditure, shocks management and poverty reduction in Kilombero valley, Tanzania
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2016) Msinde, J. V.
Livelihoods diversification towards off-farm employment is becoming a norm in developing countries and has some welfare effects. Hence, this study was carried out to unveil the effect of off-farm employment on three dimensions of poverty. These dimensions were farm input expenditure, exposure to income shocks and income poverty. The study adopted a cross-sectional design and was carried out in the Kilombero Valley. Data were collected using a structured questionnaire from 309 randomly selected households and complemented with in-depth interiviews and focus group discussions. The sampling process involved mutlistage and purposive sampling techniques. Regression models and Foster-greer-Thorbecke (FGT) poverty index were employed as analytical tools. Content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. The findings show that 82% of the surveyed households were engaged in off-farm employment. This engagement was positively influenced by a household’s structural and cognivive social capital levels, education and age of household head, land owned under cultivation and access to loans. Results on the input effect show that non-farm-self employment was positive and significant (p ≤ 0.05) in explaining input expenditure, implying farm-off-farm production linkage in which case off-farm income is spent on inputs purchase. On the contrary, engagement in farm wage employment was found to impose labour shortage for households own farm work, leading to a lost labour effect. Despite its undesirable household’s labour withdrawal effect, this employment category had a consumption smoothing effect thus, playing an ex post risk management role. The findings further reveal that non-farm self-employment has comparably more positive effects on the Foster-Greer-Thorbecke poverty measures than activities related to farm wage and non-farm wage employment. The main conclusion drawn from the thesis is that, off farm employment is heterogeneous and its effects on offsetting farm inputs constraints, income shocks and income poverty differs. It is recommended that, the issue of rural development should not be viewed as an artificial choice between promoting either off-farm wage labour or off-farm self-employment or subsistence farming alone. The issue is what strategic combinations and interlinkages are required to develop a vibrant diversified rural economy in which off-farm is a critical component.