Cassava value chain: willingness to pay for improved cassava planting material in coastal and Lake Victoria areas of Tanzania
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Date
2019
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
Lack of clean planting materials and use of Cassava Mosaic Disease (CMD) and Cassava
Brown Streak Disease (CBSD) infected planting materials has been the major constraints
to cassava production thus communities need to be empowered to have a self-sustaining
clean seed production system. Therefore, agricultural policies of the countries in Sub-
Saharan Africa should therefore emphasize seed system strategies which would result in
good quality seed of the right varieties being available. There are many factors that hinder
cassava production among them is the unavailability of clean quality improved planting
material. To overcome the challenge of unavailability of clean quality improved planting
materials, it is envisaged that its production in large quantity and dissemination in
affordable manner is imminent. The production of such planting materials could be done
on commercial basis. Therefore, objective of this study was to assess i) the cassava
demand for industrial consumption; ii) the supply base of cassava planting materials; iii)
the cost of planting materials incurred by smallholding farmers in the study areas and iv)
to determine willingness of smallholding farmers to pay for clean quality improved
planting material (improved cassava seeds) when produced and made available to them on
commercial basis. The study found that 0 percent of the respondents obtain cassava
planting materials from formal seed system, 89 percent do use seed-system approved and
released planting materials and 99 percent obtain planting materials from their own
source. Also, it was not easy to directly determine the cost of planting materials per
hectare, though based on the survey conducted to determine willingness to pay for clean
quality improved cassava planting materials it was estimated that smallholding farmers in
the study areas would pay TZS 62 500 per hectare to obtain clean quality improved
cassava planting materials. It was also found that factors influencing the willingness to
pay were age, household monthly income, agronomic cost and residential location. The study also revealed wide range of cassava varieties which are grown in the surveyed
areas whereby some of them take long time to mature. The research implications of this
study are that the demand for improved cassava seeds creates opportunity for further
research into the area whilst the practical implications are that entrepreneurial opportunity
is available for investment into commercial production. Socially the results of this study
increase the knowledge that smallholding farmers are now willing to pay for improved
cassava seeds.
It was thus concluded that, although smallholding farmers showed
willingness to pay for clean quality improved cassava planting materials when
disseminated on commercial setting, the price they are willing to pay is much less
compared to what is currently charged by commercial cassava planting materials
producers under a pilot project are charging. Also, factors influencing willingness to pay
were age, household monthly income, area under cassava cultivation, agronomic cost,
CBSD disease attack, revenue from selling cassava, cassava selling price, industrial
demand awareness, getting extension services, need for training and farming group
membership. Smallholding farmers at Muheza district were more willing to pay compared
to Kwimba and lastly Sengerema respectively. It was recommended that community
based or commercial planting materials farms be established to ensure smallholding
farmers obtain clean quality improved planting materials affordably and timely. It was
recommended that a proper governance of the cassava value chain be put in place with
measures such as establishing a cassava governing board and policy framework such as a
Cassava Master Plan.
Description
Masters Dissertation
Keywords
Value chain, Mosaic Disease, Cassava planting, Lake Victoria, Tanzania