Mapping out market drivers of improved variety seed use: the case of sorghum in Tanzania

Elizabeth P Kalema,Essegbemon Akpo,Geoffrey Muricho,Justin Ringo,Chris O Ojiewo,Rajeev K Varshney

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2022.e08715

Abstract

It is understood that the grain market pulls the seed market. The problem of low quality prompted failure of traders and processors to purchase most of the farmers' grain to subsequently drive the use of improved variety seed. The aim of this study is to identify drivers that persuade farmers to use improved variety seeds for grain production. It also assesses factors affecting market participation among small-scale farmers. Descriptive analysis, Binary Logistic model, Probit model and gross margin analysis was conducted from random selected sample of 212 individual farmers, 63 grain off-takers, 3 extension officers and 7 seeds producers through structured interviews. In additional, 80 farmers were interviewed through 10 focus group discussion. The results showed that taste, preferences and price difference between grain and seed were significant and positive drivers that influenced the decision of farmers to use improved varieties at 47% and 0.007%, respectively. Factors such as group membership and farm size were significantly positive affecting farmer's market participation while age was negatively significant affecting farmer's market participation. Gross margin was computed to compare the profit margin between users and non-users of improved variety seeds, where users had high profit margin (530 979.89Tsh/Ha) compared to non-users (472 885.94Tsh/Ha), because non-users incurred high seed cost (54 504.84Tsh/15kg) compared to users of improved variety seeds (39 329.94Tsh/kg). Also, users obtained high grain revenue compared to non-user at 1 353 268.37Tsh and 848 249.11Tsh, respectively. Efforts should be made by value chain actors and other agricultural actors to support farmers based on market demand so they could benefit from high grain quality, quantity and promising grain market.

Highlights

Africa has a mean yield of 0.8 t/ha from the cultivated area of 24 million hectares with 20 million tons per year (FAOSTAT, 2015) that makes sorghum the second most important cereal grain in Africa after maize (Msongaleli et al, 2017)
When farmers produce sorghum grain based on market demand, it guarantees farmer's better grain price of their grain and drives farmers to use improved variety seeds, where taste and preference and price difference between grain and seeds have positive relationship with the use of improved variety seeds
It's advantageous for farmers to use improved varieties even under low input, compared to landraces, it assures farmers and grain off-takers quality grain and meet market demand

Summary

Introduction

Sorghum is among the major staple food crops in the world, and it is mostly grown in semi-arid regions. The crop is used as human food and animal feed for forage and fodder, alcoholic beverages, and biofuels (Prasad and Staggenborg, 2011: Orr et al, 2020). It is the world's fifth important cereal crop in production after wheat, rice, maize, and barley (FAOSTAT, 2019). In Tanzania, sorghum is the third most widely grown cereal after maize and rice with a total of 834,284 ha which was planted with a total production of 500,000 tons (FAOSTAT, 2018), whereas the average acreage at national level per household was 0.67 ha in 2017 (Tshibaka, 1989)

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