Small- scale horticultural production and household income in the peri-urban areas of mvvanza city – Tanzania
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Date
2003
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Publisher
Sokoine Univesiry of Agriculture
Abstract
In many developing countries, Tanzania inclusive, the contribution of small-scale
horticultural production at household and in the national economy is unknown. The output
of the gardening sectors in developing countries is neither expressed in quantitative
monetary equivalent terms, nor recognized as a significant contributor to household
economies. This study seeks to determine the contribution of horticultural production in
the promotion of income generation among the small-scale horticultural producers so as to
show its economic contribution in comparison with other household’s sources of income.
In year 2001 a study was conducted in Mwanza peri-urban areas to investigate the
contribution of horticultural products to the household income. The study covered a total
of 134 horticultural growers from 5 villages of Mwanza peri-urban.
All of 134
respondents were sampled from 400 vegetable producers who were the beneficiaries of
Mwanza Smallholder Horticultural Development Project - MSHDP also engaging in other
economic activities. The results showed that horticulture growers are among the higher
income earners in comparison with other agricultural cultivators of other crops such as
cotton, cassava, maize and rice. About 19 per cent earned an income that ranged between
Tshs. 300 001 -- 500 000 and 8.2% gained between Tshs. 500 001- 700 000 per year. In
general, the income variation among the surveyed villages are very insignificant because
the villages are located in the same kind of environment of Mwanza greenbelt. In other
non- horticultural production, the study revealed that the income performance was very
poor because 34.3 % of producers earned income that was less than Tshs. 100 000 and
only 4.5% earned income between Tshs. 300 001 - 500 000 per horticultural grower. Also
the survey revealed that more than 80% of the horticultural growers used their plots for
cultivating cabbage and tomato. Furthermore the study shows that horticultural production created 1930 employment opportunities. The survey indicated that 52.2% of the farmers
sold their produce to the city wholesale market and itinerary vendors. Therefore
horticultural production is a chief contributor to the household as well as the national
income in Mwanza peri-urban areas. Horticultural production is one of the industries,
which employ people almost throughout the year in the agricultural sector than any other
field of agricultural crops production in Mwanza region. It is high time economic and
social development planners and policy makers recognized that horticultural production is
one of the pillars of the household and national economy. What is needed is to make use
of its potential value for which agricultural research and development programmes have
overlooked for a long time.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Developing countries, Small-scale, Horticultural production, National economy, Peri-urban areas, Mwanza City, Tanzania