Traditional vegetables

1. International Symposium on
Indigenous Vegetables 18-20 August 2014, Brisbane, Australia
Afari-Sefa Victor
Rajendran Srinivasulu
Kessy Radegunda
Karanja Daniel
Musebe Richard
Samali Silivesta
Makaranga Magesa
Effects of the Nutritional Perception of
Traditional Vegetables on the
Production Decisions of Smallholders
in Tanzania

2. Structure of Presentation
• Study Relevance
• Study Objectives
• Materials and Methods
• Results
• Conclusions & Policy Considerations
• Future Research Considerations
2

3. 3
Demand Side
People have become more
health conscious and prefer
to consume more vegetables
(esp., TAVs)
Consumption baskets
shifted towards increased
proportions of TAVs)
Supply Side
Is there an increasing
trend in TAV crop
concentration within the
farming system?
Reasons for crop
concentration
1. Monetary benefits?
2. Awareness about
nutritional benefits?
3. Better access to
agricultural inputs and
services?
4. Risk aversion
mechanism/diversificat
ion (i.e., climate,
income, food etc.)
If yes, reasons?
Study Relevance

4. Objectives of the Study
4
• To investigate the factors that motivate smallholders to
integrate TAVs into their farming systems.
• To identify pathways and entry points to increase TAV
cultivation by linking their perception of the nutritional
benefits in consumption with potential high value markets
in Tanzania.

5. Survey Methods
Survey Design Study Region
5
Farm Household
Survey (181)
Arusha
(57)
Tanga (20)
Morogoro
(25)
Dar es
Salaam
(22)
Dodoma
(57)
 Survey conducted between March -
May, 2013
 Survey reference period is
March, 2012-Feb., 2013
 Selected HHs – Growing TAVs and
have better market access
 Purposive sampling approach used

6. Methodology - Econometric Model: Log-linear Model
6
• Y (Dependent variable) = logit transformation of the share of traditional
vegetables cultivated area to total area under cultivation for all crops – crop
concentration (Bhatia, 1965)
• Z (Independent variables)
• Z1 = Age (Age of household head for farm j).
• Z2 = Education level of household head owning farm j, measured in years of
schooling.
• Z3 = Contact with extension agent (Dummy variable: Value is 1 if the farmer
had contact with an agricultural extension agent in the past year, 0 if
otherwise).
• Z4 = Access to cash credit (Dummy variable: Value is 1 if the farmer received
cash credit in the past year, 0 if otherwise).
• Z5 = Net operated farm area per household j in ha.
• Z6 = Distance from farm to main road in km.

7. 7
Z7,8,9 = Experienced bottleneck in access to traditional vegetable seed in terms
of timely availability, price and quality of the seed (Dummy variables: Value is 1
if the farmer experienced a bottleneck in the reference season, 0 if otherwise).
Z10 = Total input costs, including seeds, fertilizers, agro-chemicals and labour
costs in Tanzanian shillings.
Z11 = Perceived awareness of the nutritional importance of vegetables in human
nutrition, measured using a 1-5 point Likert scale variable (i.e., 1= strongly
disagree; 2 = disagree; 3 = neither agree or disagree; 4 = agree; and 5 =
strongly agree)
Z12 = Log of traditional vegetable crop sales value.
Dd = Region dummies (D5 = Dodoma* (slope dummy); D1 = Arusha, D2=Tanga,
D3 = Dar and D4 = Morogoro region)

8. Measurement of crop concentration
(dependent variable)
• The share of TAV cultivated area to total area under
cultivation for all crops.
• It provides an idea of the variations in the density of crop
distribution being investigated as well as the importance of
the focus crop in comparison with other competing crops
(Bhatia, 1965).
8

9. Household cultivation of various traditional vegetables by region
9
14
35
68
16
70
41
16
55
0
32
42
29
23
50
23
12
9
20
58
0
27
0
2
22
12
15
55
32
12
20
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Arusha Tanga Dar Morogoro Dodoma Overall
Number
of
respondents
Regions
Amaranth African Eggplant Nightshade Ethiopian mustard Sweet Potato

10. Land ownership and cultivated area by farm size category
Farm Size Category
No. of
househol
ds
% of
house-
holds
Total
area
owned
(ha)1
Net
operated
area (ha)1
Net
operated
irrigated
area (ha)
% of
NOA2
(Weighti
ng by
househol
d)
Marginal & Small Farm
(<2 ha)
139 77 0.7 (0.6) 0.8 (0.5) 0.4 43.9
Medium Farm (2-4 ha)
32 18 2.8 (1.1) 2.7 (0.5) 0.5 34.1
Large Farm (> 4 ha)
10 5 6.0 (2.2) 6.9 (3.4) 0.5 27.2
Overall
181 100 1.4 (1.6) 1.4 (1.8) 0.5 100
10
1Numbers in parenthesis denote standard deviations.
2Net operated area

11. Determinants of concentration crop towards traditional African
vegetables by farm households
(1)
VARIABLES Model 1
Gender (female) 0.332**
(2.387)
Level of Education (years) -0.0541***
(-4.113)
Age (years) -0.0110
(-1.349)
Family Size 0.0295
(0.897)
Log of Net Operated Area -0.873***
(-7.170)
Awareness on nutrition value of TAVs (scale) 0.167*
(1.673)
Extension Services (dummy) -0.106
(-0.516)
Credit Access (dummy) 0.808***
(3.121)
Log of Total Input Cost (excl. family labour) 0.207***
(2.920)
11

12. 12
(1)
VARIABLES Model 1
Timing of_seed (dummy) -0.507*
(-1.839)
Price_of seed (dummy) -0.0329
(-0.141)
Quality of seed (dummy) 0.0612
(0.255)
Log of family labour cost 0.329***
(2.626)
Arusha Region (dummy) 0.566**
(2.400)
Tanga Region (dummy) 0.609**
(2.456)
Dar es-salaam Region (dummy) 0.206
(0.390)
Morogoro Region (dummy) -0.0412
(-0.116)
Log of Sales Value of Traditional Vegetable Crops received 0.139*
(1.717)
Constant -8.300***
(-4.714)
Observations 122
R-squared 0.685
Robust t-statistics in parentheses
Significant Level (*** p<0.01, ** p<0.05, * p<0.10)

13. Summary of Key Findings
13
• Farmer’s perception about the importance of nutrition will have a
significant and positive effect on TAV crop concentration within
their farming system;
• Farmer’s socioeconomic variables such as education, access to
credit, family labor capacity positively and significantly influence
their TAV crop concentration within the farming system.
• Female-headed households’ participation is significantly and
positively related to the TAV crop concentration within the
farming system.
• Timing of TAV seed availability is a critical determinant of crop
concentration.
• There are marked regional differences in TAV preferences that
need to be noted in targeting future interventions.

14. Policy suggestions
• Target intervention programs on nutritional importance of
vegetables towards smallholders and home gardeners since
the former (44%) contributes the highest volume of TAVs
for both market and home consumption.
• Encourage female participation in TAV sector vegetable
production through provision of adequate farm
management training and knowledge for value chain
upgrading.
• Advocate for enabling government policies and public-
private partnerships to enhance timely availability of TAV
seeds to smallholders to bridge the spatial and time gaps in
seed systems.
• Link smallholders to high value TAV markets as income
from sale of produce increases with increasing crop
concentration.
14

15. Future Research Considerations
• A study of decision making on vegetable production by females
within male-headed households would be an interesting area
for future research (gender division of labor in the HH: time
surveys)
• Extend study to include effect of nutritional awareness on
consumption decisions of both smallholders and consumers
15

16. 16
Thank You

17. Descriptive statistics of log-linear regression variables
17
Variable Obs Mean Std. Dev. Min Max
Share of traditional vegetables to total area
cultivated 183 0.4 0.3 0.01 1.00
Female (dummy) 181 0.4 0.5 0.00 1.00
Level of Education (Years) 181 6.8 3.9 0.00 46.00
Age (Years) 179 39.5 10.5 18.00 64.00
Family Size 181 5.4 2.2 1.00 14.00
Net Operated Area 181 3.5 4.4 0.10 35.00
Awareness on nutrition value of TAVs (scale
1-5) 180 4.0 0.8 1.00 5.00
Extension Services (Dummy) 159 0.6 0.5 0.00 1.00
Credit Access (Dummy) 151 0.1 0.3 0.00 1.00
Total Input Cost (excl. family labour) 180 98209 148644 0 1002800
Timing of_seed (Dummy) 177 0.1 0.3 0.00 1.00
Price_of seed (Dummy) 176 0.2 0.4 0.00 1.00
Quality of_seed (Dummy) 177 0.2 0.4 0.00 1.00
family labour cost 180 23193 17803 1730 155691
Sales Value of Traditional Vegetable Crops
received 179 313440 401075 0 3250000