Abstract
This study modeled maize marketing model in Northern Zone of Tanzania together with its store-time for household income optimization. The study has been conducted in three regions i.e. Manyara, Arusha and Kilimanjaro in the selected nine Districts basing on their maize production volume i.e. Karatu, Hai, Siha, Arumeru, Mbulu, Hanang, Babati and Moshi rural. Focused Group Discussions (FGD), structured and semi-structured questionnaires were employed as data collection tools. Multivariate Linear Regression Models were developed together with some other statistical inferences so as to draw conclusions on the findings. This study reveals that, 94% of farmers depend highly on middlemen for marketing their maize grains. There is a significant relationship between maize marketing channels and household income with <i>P</i>-value = 0.04. Average store-time for majority of the respondents (70%) was found to be six-months. There was significant different (<i>P</i>-value = 0.002) between quantity harvested and store-time of maize in Northern Tanzania. From a multivariate regression linear model, it was found that, for household income optimization special attention should be given much on; production cost, storage cost, marketing cost and quantity of maize to be sold with reference to monthly price trend. This study recommends a range of four to seven month maize store-time for household sale and income optimization.
Highlights
In Tanzania maize provides a number of benefits such as income creation, source of employment and food security
This study offers suggestion to monitor further debates on the link between maize marketing model and their store-time in justifying small-holders farmer’s household income optimizations in Northern Zone of Tanzania, pin-pointing operating maize trade flows and their marketing channels, to estimate household income with regards to store-time in relation to monthly price trend
The results showed that there was a significant association between store time and storage structures especially on Polyethylene bags with insecticide, with a coefficient of correlation of 0.23, P‒value 0.05; Metal drum had a coefficient of correlation 0.17 with P‒value of 0.03, Polyethylene bags without insecticide scored a coefficient of correlation of 0.14 with P‒value 0.04
Summary
In Tanzania maize provides a number of benefits such as income creation, source of employment and food security. The crop itself contributes about 20% of the country GDP, over 30% household income, 60% of dietary calories and 50% of protein intake as the staple food [1,2,3]. Despite the contributions the crop has in the country, its marketing arrangements are not well characterized when compared with some cash crops such as cashew, coffee and cotton. Maize sector receive a lot of state interventions regardless of high private sectors involvement [4]. The extent of state interventions in maize marketing and pricing remains a big challenge to policy makers [5]
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