Heifer In-trust schemes and incomes of smallholder households in the Highland and Semi-arid regions of Tanzania
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Date
2015
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Livestock Research for Rural Development
Abstract
Poor household incomes are a major challenge to smallholder farming households’ expenses in Tanzania
including Njombe and Shinyanga regions. The Heifer In-trust Schemes (HIS) were introduced in these
regions purposely to enable vulnerable households to improve their food and income security hence raising
such households’ purchasing power. The study’s main objective was to assess the role of the HIS to
smallholder households’ major expenditures in the above-mentioned areas. Specifically, the study aimed
at exploring the assets and income acquired through the beneficiary household’s involvement in the HIS
and at examining their ability to meet children’s educational and households' health costs. The study
adopted a cross-sectional design whereby data were collected from 402 randomly selected HIS
beneficiaries’ households using a structured questionnaire. In addition, nine focus group discussions
involving 135 discussants were conducted to complement information collected through the questionnaire.
Children’s education, assets acquisition and food accounted for 36.2, 24.3 and 10.5% of the income
accrued from the HIS dairy enterprise. The benefits in Njombe (a highland area) and Shinyanga (a semi
arid area) zones were similar.
Description
18p
Keywords
Heifer In-trust Schemes, Households income, Income security, Smallholder farming househods, Njombe, Shinyanga