Abstract
This research assessed the motivation of farmers to sell sunflower oil and in seed form and its effects on profitability. Data was collected through survey of 194 smallholder farmers in Dodoma region. The gross margin model was used to analyze profitability and was compared using the difference of mean test between households that sell oil and those who sell in seed form. Tobit Regression Model was used to analyze the factors that affect the proportion of sunflower sold as seeds. Results show that, higher variable costs were observed to farmers who processing sunflower; but higher gross margins were observed to farmers who process sunflower. This implied that farmers selling sunflower oil are more profitable than those farmers selling in seed form. Sunflower oil price, amount of sunflower harvested, size of household, farmer groups have significant and positive relationships with the proportion of sunflower sold as seed. The distance to the nearest machine is negatively and significantly associated with the proportion of sunflower sold as seed. Farmers should be encouraged to process sunflower before sale through training and extension. Access to yield-enhancing inputs, marketing or processing in groups, private entrepreneurs set up processing plants closer to farmers, invest mobile processing through improvement of the rural road network are some interventions proposed in this study to help farmers reduce transactions costs of processing.
Highlights
Tanzania ranks second in Africa and 10th in the world in terms of sunflower production [1]
The results show that the number of people in a household had a positive influence on the proportion of sunflower sold as seeds
Sunflower production was profitable venture regardless of the form in which the farmers choose to sell their products. It was even more profitable for the farmers who process sunflower before sale, it is important for the farmers being encouraged and assisted to process sunflower before sale through training at farm level and through interventions such as marketing collectively, access to yield-enhancing inputs and spreading of processing to larger volumes to reduce the process costs during processing
Summary
Tanzania ranks second in Africa and 10th in the world in terms of sunflower production [1]. The world share in sunflower seed production stands at 2.4% and has increased nine-fold from 135000 to 1 083000 metric tones in 2000 and 2015 respectively [2]. Production, processing and marketing of the crop is very low in Tanzania. The crop is cultivated by 250,000 households who are smallholder farmers owning an average of 0.4 to 2 ha with a few medium and large scale farmers cultivating over 405 ha [3,4]. More than 80% of these smallholder farmers are located in Dodoma, Manyara, Singida and Morogoro (Eastern and Central corridor) and Kigoma, Iringa and Mbeya in the Southern highland region
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