Welcome to SUAIRE

Sokoine University of Agriculture  Institutional Repository (SUA IR). This repository was built and is maintained by the university library  (Sokoine National Agricultural Library-SNAL) , in order to collect, preserve and disseminate scholarly output generated by University research community (staff and students) members.

This repository hosts a variety of openly accessible materials including: scholarly articles and books, theses and dissertations, conference proceedings and technical reports. For assistance about depositing your research output in the repository click here. SUA IR Policy  click here or any queries contact us at snal@sua.ac.tz.

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Communities in SUAIRE

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Now showing 1 - 5 of 14

Recent Submissions

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Impact of rural feeder roads on rural development: a case study of Kilosa district
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 1983) Munyanganizi, Henry Rwamasasa
Kilosa District rural roads programme is part of the rural development programmes being undertaken by the Irish Development Agency in the District. The agency has undertaken to improve two rural roads by building bridges and culverts and grading the roads to all weather conditions. The two roads, Myombo-Kidete and Rudewa-Nongwe are to serve the Communication Stricken mountain areas of Rubeho and Nongwe, in order to enable the people in that part of Kilosa District to raise their standards of living, by improving agriculture, marketing produce and gaining access to socio-economic infrastructures. The people of the area at the moment face severe lack of rural roads and rural transport to link them to sources of farm inputs, markets for agricultural pro­ duce sources of contacts for extension agents, health services, communication systems and other necessary social infrastructures. The study was designed to analyse factors which affect the development of rural areas in Kilosa District namely:
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The impact of microfinance institutions on rural livelihoods: the case of village community banks in Bunda district – Tanzania
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2011) Maditto, Said .Juma
This research examined the impact of microfinance institutions on rural livelihoods particularly in the case of Village Community Banks (VICOBA) in Bunda District - Tanzania. The overall objective of the research was to engender information that would help improve performance of the VICOBAs and livelihoods of the rural communities in Bunda District. Specifically, this research identified the socio-economic factors that determined participation in the VICOBA schemes, assessed the impact of VICOBA schemes on the livelihoods of the beneficiaries and lastly, identified the problems facing the schemes in the study area. A total of 130 randomly selected heads of households consisting of 65 VICOBA beneficiaries and 65 non-beneficiaries were interviewed using a semi-structured questionnaire supplemented by focus group discussions, key informants and participant observations. Results indicated that age and total number of dependants were the main socio-economic factors that determined participation in VICOBA. It was also found out, in this research, that there was a significant improvement in livelihoods among participating households compared to non-participating households in terms of micro entrepreneur assets. Moreover, the research found that VICOBA schemes were constrained with institutional problems like limited working capital, lack of entrepreneurship skills, lack of security of deposits, poor financial record keeping and lack of linkage with formal microfinance institutions. Based on these findings, the research recommends that the government and other stakeholders should create a regulatory framework enabling the community based microfinance services, like VICOBA, to reach more marginalized rural communities so that they might improve their well-being through financial services and other diversified products. Furthermore, the VICOBA groups should be capacitated in terms of training, financial support and working facilities, in order to improve their efficiency and effectiveness in serving the poor in rural areas.
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Credit demand and supply for single mothers: a case of caritas development office in Mbeya region, Tanzania.
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2007) Mabula, David .M.
Phenomenon of single mothers has not been perceived by the society for a long time, although many people are confronted with it in their neighbourhood and families. Single mothers are given full responsibility and guilty of their own situation and position in the society. Many of them, especially young girls become outcasts of the society. Recently it has become very difficult to ignore the fact that the increase of single mothers is more obvious in urban area due to increase of cases of divorce, lack of responsible fatherhood, death of husbands, early unprotected sexual practices among adolescents, unprotected sexual practices in general and increased migration from rural to urban. Even though the economic situation and life standards of single mothers as the most vulnerable group among the single parents is worse, there is no micro finance organization which deals explicitly with single mothers as such, despite the fact that there is very strong demand of credit for them. In that sense there is a need to carry out a case study on credit demand and supply for single mothers to support the observations stated in this study.
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Performance of group based semi-formal credit on sustainable livelihoods of micro entrepreneurs: a case study of pride Tanzania
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2008) Luoga, Venceslaus Patrick
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the performance of group based credit services and its implications on the micro-entrepreneur’s livelihood. Specifically the study aimed at (i) identifying socio-economic factors that determine the loan acquisition from group- based credit services by the micro-entrepreneurs; (ii) investigating the loan repayment performance within the group and to credit provider and (iii) assessing the impact of credit on the livelihoods of micro-entrepreneurs. Data were collected from a sample of 120 micro-entrepreneurs in Iringa District who were beneficiaries of PRIDE Tanzania. Random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. Data analysis employed both descriptive and quantitative methods. The study revealed that majority of micro­ entrepreneurs were females. The main source of initial capital was own savings. Empirical results show that the initial capital, net income, experience in business and number of times the entrepreneurs received credit had positive significant influence on the amount of credit received by micro-entrepreneur. Furthermore the study found that credit had significant impact on fixed assets ownership where borrowers had more assets than non­ borrowers. The findings showed that there was high repayment performance (more than 99%) to credit institution but there was high default within the group. The study revealed that credit which is granted for business activities is, in many cases diverted to finance family needs like educating children and medical expenses. Micro-entrepreneurs complained of the high interest rate charged, small loan size, short repayment period and weekly meeting limit the growth of their business. The study suggests that PRIDE Tanzania should set policies that would enable young micro-entrepreneurs who wish to start business but lack capital to access credit. The interest rate should be lowered. It should consider the possibility of increasing the grace period. Training should also provide micro-entrepreneurs business skills. It has to be flexible by providing loans size based on business status and not on the frequency of borrowing-.
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Linking small scale farmers to market: an evaluation of agricultural marketing system development programme in arumeru district, Tanzania
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2008) Kulindwa, Yusuph John
The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of institutions supporting the marketing system (particularly AMSDP programme as case study) in the linking of small scale farmers to markets following market liberalization in Tanzania. Thus the study attempted to identify different factors that influence smallholder farmer’s participation to the markets. It was expected that the identification of factors and the extent to which they influence farmers’ participation to the market could assist institutions in formulation of policy intervention to stimulate participation of small scale farmers to agricultural product markets. Transaction costs originate from a number of sources which include information asymmetries, enforcement of trade contract, negotiation, and monitoring influence on farmers’ participation to the market. The study hypothesized that decision of smallholder farmers to participate to the markets is influenced by transaction costs, household characteristics and the level of market orientation. In order to test the hypothesis that these factors influence decision of smallholder farmers’ participation to the markets, logit model was estimated using survey/data from randomly selected 163 households. The results show that farming learned through extension officer and education of the household positively and significantly influenced the probability of household participation to the market in the study area. On the other hand, the distance to the market and the age of the household head were negatively and significantly associated with the probability of smallholder fanners participating to the market. Size of the farm cultivated, road condition and household size were positively related to household participation to the market. The study provides recommendations that would reduce impediments of farmers’ participation to the markets. Institutional support in provision of market information, training, and extension services, could facilitate the establishment of smallholder cooperatives (groups) and association that would empower smallholder farmers and enable them to access the markets easily. Mechanisms should be established to ensure NGOs and Local government become the main mediator of contracts between companies and small-scale farmers in cases where they are required to cultivate a certain crop, particularly non traditional crops so that both groups may benefit.