The contribution of foreign aid to poverty alleviation in agricultural programmes: a case study of female headed-households in Babati district, Manyara region, Tanzania.

The study investigated the contribution of foreign aid to poverty alleviation in agricultural programmes in Babati district, Manyara region. Five specific objectives that guided the study. First examined female-headed households’ participation in agricultural programmes financed by donors, another objective examined is the contribution of foreign aid to improvement of livelihoods of agricultural female-headed households, thirdly I investigated various challenges that female-headed households are facing in agricultural programmes that depend on foreign aid. Moreover, the role of foreign aid in poverty reduction among female-headed households was examined while the efforts made by female-headed households in improving agricultural outputs were identified. Purposive sampling, random sampling and snowball sampling were adopted to generate the required samples. Data were collected from agricultural female-headed households and key informants in Babati District. Interview, questionnaires and observation techniques were used to collect primary data. Qualitative data were analysed thematically while quantitative data were subjected to Statistical Package for the Social Sciences analysis. The study found that, foreign aid to agricultural programmes had no contribution to poverty alleviation among female-headed households in Babati district because of various factors including unsustainability of agricultural programmes and poor programme planning. Furthermore, the study has established both internal and external factors that contribute to ineffectiveness of foreign aid to agricultural programmes towards poverty alleviation in Babati district. However, the study is not completely ignoring the contribution of foreign aid in improving female-headed household livelihood. Among other recommendations, the study recommends that serious measures be initiated to reduce aid dependence and eventually total termination of foreign aid to the agricultural sector in Tanzania.