The role of Migowe towards rural poverty alleviation in Njombe district, Tanzania

Abstract

Poverty alleviation is the most urgent task facing humanity today. It is a challenge that no country, developed or developing can forego. The characteristics of rural and urban poverty are quite different. In order to reduce rural poverty in Tanzania, improvement in farm incomes of majority of the rural population is necessary. One of the strategies which can be used as an intervention to alleviate poverty is Migowe. This study therefore, was designed to investigate the role played by Migowe towards rural poverty alleviation in four villages of Njombe District. The general objective of the study was to investigate the role of Migowe towards rural poverty alleviation. Specific objectives were to identify factors that influence community members to abide to Migowe regulations, to assess contribution of Migowe towards household food security and income improvement. The study adopted a cross-sectional research design where interview schedules were applied to collect data from a sample size of 120 respondents. Data were statistically analyzed by the use of descriptive statistics whereby frequencies and percentages were computed. Chi-square was employed to examine the relationship between variables. Findings from this study show that respondents participated in Migowe activities because they wanted to accomplish their planned activities on time. Activities involved in Migowe included buying pork, crop harvesting, cultivation, land preparation and milk selling. Migowe activities helped farmers to increase household incomes and household food security. Statistical T-test analysis result showed a significance difference at p≤0.05 between mean income of Migowe and non Migowe members. Furthermore, the study recommends that farmers should be encouraged to continue working in groups of people with homogeneous social norms and values and that there should be a deliberate effort of publicizing this type of traditional cooperation throughout the country to all farmers with similar activities.