Community perception and participation in agricultural projects in Kishapu district, Tanzania
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Date
2024-05
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
This study focuses on community perceptions and participation in
agricultural projects in Kishapu District, emphasizing the need for
understanding both positive and negative perceptions. The motivation
behind the need of such understanding is that perception towards
development projects being introduced or implemented in an area tends
to differ among community members, with some projects being
perceived negatively and others positively. Community members are
more likely to participate if they have a positive perception about the
project in question. Therefore, there is a need of understanding the
drivers for community perception and drivers for community
participation in development projects. Specifically, the study aimed at
understanding the community perceptions towards agricultural projects
(1st part of the study) and the influence of other socio-economics of the
community on participation in agricultural projects (2nd part of the study),
using Kishapu District as a case. Data were collected from 100
respondents through questionnaire survey, and from 6 participants
through key informant interview and focus group discussion. Descriptive
statistics, binary logistic regression model, multiple linear regression
model and content analysis were employed for data analysis. Results
show that, most of the respondents had a positive perception toward
agricultural projects because the projects contribute to community
development. Drivers of positive community perception are involvement
in previous agricultural projects, education, access to information and
farm size. Therefore, community perception toward agricultural projects
hinges on the extent to which similar projects have benefited the
community in the past. For levels of community participation in
agricultural projects the findings revealed that most of the respondents
(92%) fall under the category of low level of participation, 6% of medium
level and only 2% for high level of participation. Regarding the factors
influencing community participation, findings show that variables such
as household member information, farm size and involvement in
previous projects has a significant influence (p>0.05) on community participation. This study
thus recommends that principal investigators of agriculture based
development projects must ensure that targeted beneficiaries really
benefit in the entire course of their project implementation since
community perception toward agricultural projects depends on the past
experience from the previous projects’ performance. Social and
institutional benefits accruing from participation in agricultural projects
include; agricultural knowledge and skills, farmer cooperatives formation
or strengthening, participation in decision making, contributing ideas in
farmers groups' meetings and economic gains. Thus, to achieve
positive community perceptions towards agricultural projects there is a
need for project implementers to ensure that projects improve people’s
living standards. Moreover, there is a need to ensure community
members are well informed of the projects regardless of their literacy
level and that innovative practices to benefit farmers regardless of their
farm sizes are promoted.
Description
MA. Dissertation in Project Management and Evaluation
Keywords
Agriculture, Community, Participation, Development Project, Perception