Abstract
This study assessed the effects of non-tariff barriers (NTBs) on market participation for maize smallholder farmers in the major maize producing districts of Mbozi and Momba in Mbeya region located in the Southern Highland of Tanzania. A two-stage stratified sampling was used in selecting 240 smallholder farmers from the selected villages in two districts and interviewed. In estimating the effects of NTBs on market participation and quantity of maize sold by farmers, the two-stage Henchman model was used. Results showed that, NTBs and distance to market had negative effects on the quantity of maize supplied and market participation. This implies that, for every 100% increase in application of NTBs by the government could decrease market participation and sell of maize by 77% from smallholder farmers. However, ownership of assets and amount of harvest were found to increase maize supply and market participation by 68 and 2%, respectively. The study concluded that, application of NTBs policies in Tanzania could not increase supply of maize especially on surplus regions and districts. In contrast could discourage farmers’ market participation. Therefore, it was recommend that, government should eliminate discriminative NTBs and improve market infrastructures such as roads and storage facilities in order to increase farmers’ market participation. Key words: Market participation, maize, non-tariff barriers (NTBs), smallholder farmers.
Highlights
In several Sub-Saharan African countries (SSA) including Tanzania, food security is linked to staple food production and marketing (Mbise et al, 2010; KI, 2011; FAO, 2012)
This implies that farmers in most case respond quickly to high price due to the fact that, high price increases their income from maize selling and enable them to enquire more resources for production activities
The probability of farmers to participate in the market is indicated by the odd ratio of 1.245 which implies that market participation will increase by that factor for a unit increase in education level attainable by a household
Summary
In several Sub-Saharan African countries (SSA) including Tanzania, food security is linked to staple food production and marketing (Mbise et al, 2010; KI, 2011; FAO, 2012). In most of these countries, maize is a key staple food and major tradable crop (FAOSTAT, 2009; World Bank, 2012). Similar to other countries in SSA, maize in Tanzania is a major staple food crop consumed by about 90% of its population followed by rice (17%) (National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 2008) which is more preferred staple food for medium and high income earners (Kilimanjaro International (KI), 2011).
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