Livestock, crop commercialisation and poverty reduction among rural households in the Singida region, Tanzania
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Agricultural Policy Research in Africa
Abstract
Livestock is an important component of mixed crop-livestock farming systems in the Singida Region in Tanzania, directly or indirectly contributing to household income, food security and poverty reduction among rural people in the region. This paper examined the effect of livestock on crop commercialisation and farmers’ livelihoods in the region. It was expected that livestock would enhance crop commercialisation as measured in terms of the Crop Commercialisation Index (CCI) and improve livelihoods among rural people in the region. The CCI was computed as a percentage of the gross value of major crops marketed out of the gross value produced. The crops used in the computation of CCI were maize, sunflower, rice, common bean, sorghum, pearl millet and groundnuts. Quantitative data for the analysis were extracted from the Agricultural Policy Research for Africa (APRA) data set of 600 households selected randomly from random samples of eight and seven villages in Iramba and Mkalama districts respectively. The quantitative data were complimented with qualitative data collected through focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Descriptive statistics were used to compare commercialisation levels and poverty levels across different categories of farmers. Regression analyses were used to determine if livestock had a significant effect on crop commercialisation and poverty levels, controlling for other variables that might have an effect.The results of this study show that livestock enhanced crop commercialisation rather than inhibiting it. This enhancement stems from the provision of livestock manure for soil fertility improvement and animal traction as a tillage technology. The complementarity between crops and livestock in the farming systems of Singida needs to be recognised, enhanced and utilised not only by farmers and livestock keepers, but also by local government authorities and development practitioners. Apart from livestock, a range of other factors have worked together with livestock to drive the crop commercialisation process. These factors include the use of tractors as a tillage implement, total land planted with crops, farmer’s education level, distance to the nearest motorable road as a proxy for access to markets and use of productivity (yield) enhancing inputs such as improved seed, inorganic fertiliser and pesticides. However, the findings show that some factors are likely to be obstacles to crop commercialisation which, if addressed, can accelerate crop commercialisation processes. These factors include, but are not limited to, household size – which increases subsistence consumption at the expense of marketable surplus – and poor access to crop markets due to absence of good roads linking crop producing villages to markets. Interventions to promote crop commercialisation should go hand in hand with efforts to increase access to family planning and reproductive health services in rural areas. Regarding market access, the government has made commendable improvements on major roads connecting regional and district headquarters in the country through the Tanzania National Roads Agency (TANROADS). However, much more needs to be done to improve and maintain roads connecting district headquarters to villages. This is the responsibility of the recently established Tanzania Rural and Urban Roads (TARURA) that needs to be implemented.
Description
Working Paper
Keywords
Singida, Livestock, Crop commercialisation, Poverty reduction