Masters Dissertations

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Browsing Masters Dissertations by Author "Anthony, Msafiri Joseph"

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    Assessment of the contribution of cooperative unions in reducing poverty among smallholder coffee farmers in tanzania The case study of the Kilimanjaro native cooperative union (kncu) in kilimanjaro region
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2013) Anthony, Msafiri Joseph
    This study aimed at assessing the contribution of the cooperative unions in reducing poverty among smallholder coffee farmers in Tanzania. Using the Kilimanjaro Native Cooperative Union (KNCU) as a case study, it assesses the implementation of KNCU in providing services to its members. The study also examines the effects of the services provided by the union in improving the smallholders’ livelihood and hence poverty reduction of its members. The study identifies problems and challenges that hinder KNCU in attempting to reduce poverty of its members. The methods of data collection employed in this study included questionnaires, focus group discussion, direct observation and interviews. The findings indicate that, KNCU provides services to its members at a low price and to a large extent those services have effects in improving smallholder coffee farmers’ livelihood and hence reduction of their poverty. Smallholders have been able to own things which they did not own before becoming members of the union. They have good social welfare and majority of them live in better houses. However, the study identified problems and challenges that hinder KNCU in attempting to reduce poverty of its members. These included low level of literacy among cooperative members, inadequate monitoring and evaluation capacity of the cooperative union, inadequate funds for purchasing coffee, price fluctuation at domestic and the world markets, inadequate market access and unjust agricultural trade policies. Again the study proposed the way forward in order to overcome the mentioned problems and challenges. These included to educate smallholder coffee farmers so that they have the knowledge of their rights and responsibilities in the cooperative union, KNCU should monitor and evaluate the performance of its activities, there should be enough capital to purchase and collect coffee from the farmers, KNCU to involve Smallholders in negotiating price of their coffee, there should be adequate market access, KNCU to encourage Fair Trade Project and ensure the quality of coffee produced by providing members with extension services and so on. The study recommends issues to be addressed in order to enhance the contribution of KNCU towards poverty reduction of its members. These include membership criteria where men become members of the union to represent their households and hence inadequate views from women, KNCU to encourage farmers to grow organic coffee which uses natural pesticides and which has better price, consumer and environmental friendly compared to conventional coffee, the government to encourage Tanzanians to consume coffee in order to enhance domestic market that will reduce the problem of price and inadequate market, KNCU to encourage smallholders to use new coffee seedlings which produce enough and quality coffee, KNCU to have the habit of monitoring and evaluating its activities to improve its performance, it should also, encourage Smallholders to create local streams to collect rain water during the rainy season for use with the absence of rain or inadequate rain for watering coffee seedlings and that government should empower cooperative unions interms of financial resources to enable them have the capacity to help their members in improving their livelihood.