Bambara groundnuts and cowpeas for farmers’ livelihood in the Semi Arid Regions of Tanzania: a case of Dodoma Region
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Date
2007
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
The study on assessment of the role of bambara groundnuts and cowpeas for farmers'
livelihood in the semi arid regions of Tanzania, was carried out in Dodoma region.
Specifically the study aimed at (i) analyzing bambara groundnuts and cowpeas cropping
system, (ii) estimating yield of different varieties of bambara groundnuts and cowpeas
under farmers' condition, (iii) assessing the role of bambara groundnuts and cowpeas on
food security, (iv) assessing the gender roles in bambara groundnuts and cowpeas
production (v) assessing the socio - economic factors that influences the production and
marketing of bambara groundnuts and cowpeas in Dodoma region and (vi) quantifying the
contribution of these crops to the household income. One hundred and twenty (120) of
bambara groundnuts and cowpea growers were sampled basing on their wealth for primary
data collection. Secondary data were collected through a desk review of publications from
key organizations. Pre-tested questionnaires were used to interview farmers. Both
descriptive and quantitative analysis techniques were used. Descriptive analysis included
the use of means, percentages, ranges and other summary was done by using the Statistics
Package for Social Science (SPSS). The same software was used for quantitative analysis.
The results revealed that bambara groundnuts is grown as sole crop, inter cropping is done
but very rarely, while on the case of cowpeas, inter cropping is a common practice in the
study area. The study also reveled that bambara groundnuts yield higher (880kg/ha) in the
study area than average yield in Sub-saharan Africa (858.5kg/ha) and cowpeas yield an
average of 500kg/ha. The results also revealed that 42% and 43% of the household depend
on bambara groundnuts and cowpeas for food during hunger periods respectively. The
results indicates that bambara groundnuts and cowpeas are mainly produced by women, on
average 97% and 95% of bambara groundnuts and cowpeas respectively are women.
Regression analysis reveals that bambara groundnuts and cowpeas production is highly
influenced by area under bambara groundnuts, area under competing crop, price of input.
and market access and for cowpeas the production is influenced by cowpeas price, area
under cowpeas, price of intercropped crop and market access. Lastly the result revealed the
crops are important sources of house hold income, 73% of the respondent earn income
from bambara groundnuts production while 37% of respondents earn income from
cowpeas production.
Description
Masters Dissertation
Keywords
Bambara groundnuts, Cowpeas, Dodoma region, Farmers Livehood, Tanzania, Semi Arid Regions