Browsing by Author "Ochieng, Nelson"

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    Effects of small scale agricultural crop commercialization on the rural household welfare: a case study of Liwale district, Lindi region
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2017) Ochieng, Nelson
    Agriculture employs the majority of rural households in Tanzania, however, the rural household welfare is not pleasing, and therefore, the main objective of this dissertation is to examine the effect of crop commercialization on rural households’ welfare in Liwale district in Lindi, Tanzania using a randomly selected sample of 389 households. The commercialization index from output side was used to estimate the level of household commercialization. The principal component analysis was used to develop a household welfare index and food security index, former was then clustered to identify poor and non-poor households through cluster analysis. The logistic model was employed to examine factors affecting the household welfare and the multiple regression analysis was used to estimate factors affecting household food security. The results show that crop commercialization, women participation in income allocation, off-farm income, access to extension services and household size significantly and positively affect household welfare while household head’s age had a significant negative effect. Also crop commercialization, women participation in household’s income allocation, and extension services significantly affect food security positively. The policy implications are that stakeholders should provide financial support in forms of subsidies and training to rural farmers and establish small-scale agriculture processing units in rural areas to increase the agricultural productivity and market participation, provision of extension service, and women empowerment and participation in all levels of family and national planning should be promoted to boost the welfare and keep a household food secure.