Assessment of food market structures and their implication to household food security in Rufiji district
| dc.contributor.author | Massawe, Samwel | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-04-22T10:50:03Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-04-22T10:50:03Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2008 | |
| dc.description | Dissertation | |
| dc.description.abstract | This study analyzes food market structure and its implication to household food security in Rufiji district with particular emphasis on Rufiji Demographic Surveillance System (RDSS) area. Specifically, the study analyzed existing food market structures in terms of number and size of marketing agents and marketing channels for major food products in Rufiji district; analyzed market efficiency of food products in terms of barrier to entry, vertical integration and market transparency; derived the implication of existing market structures and efficiency in terms of household food sufficiency; and proposed policy measures for addressing food insecurity in Rufiji district. A cross sectional single-visit survey that included randomly selected representative samples of 153 farmers and 66 food traders residing in RDSS area was conducted in February 2006. Pre-tested questionnaires were used to interview the sampled farmers and food traders selected so as to capture issues of food production and marketing in the area. The results of analysis revealed that (i) production of food crops for households with food deficit was low compared to households with food surplus; (ii) more than 90% of the households accessed most of their food items from food retail markets; (iii) in many areas food markets were concentrated with few traders who operate under diseconomies of scale; (iv) the entry major barrier faced by food traders is lack of access to capital; (vi) traders who integrate vertically offered processed food products at lower price; and (vii) correlation analysis between marketing margin and selling price of food products showed that changes in food prices were passed by traders from one marketing channel to another without significantly increasing their marketing margins. Based on the findings, the study recommended that (i) Food crop production should beiii increased by using appropriate modem technologies such as fertilizers, tractors and improved seeds to enable farmers to be food self-sufficient and at the same time increase marketed surplus; (ii) Traders should be sensitized by local government through district cooperative officers to form Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies (SACCOS) as an alternative to formal banks; (iii) The local authority in collaboration with development partners in the district should adopt the approach used by Rufiji Demographic Surveillance System (RDSS) to collect market information from identified locations in each month so as to monitor movement of food prices over time and space in order to improve district market information system. | |
| dc.description.sponsorship | Food Security and Nutrition Monitoring (FSNM) project. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://www.suaire.sua.ac.tz/handle/123456789/6664 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | Sokoine University of Agriculture | |
| dc.subject | Food market structures | |
| dc.subject | Food security | |
| dc.subject | Market food product | |
| dc.title | Assessment of food market structures and their implication to household food security in Rufiji district | |
| dc.type | Thesis |