Attitude of Farmers towards Quality Declared Seed Production in Kilombero District, Morogoro, Tanzania (Published)
This paper assesses the attitude of farmers towards Quality Declared Seed (QDS) use in Kilombero District, Tanzania. Using data gathered through household survey from about 100 sample households of randomly selected villages from Kilombero District. Specifically, the paper answered the question on what are the attitude of farmers towards Quality Declared Seed (QDS) use in Tanzania. A cross-sectional research design was used, whereby a questionnaire was administered to 100 farmers. Focus group discussions and key informant interviews were also conducted to allow triangulation of data. while, qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. Attitude was measured against 18 statements regarding attitude of respondents towards QDS following five-point Likert scale. The result show that majority of farmers had positive attitude towards the effectiveness of QDS. High technology cost in using QDS was found to be one of the barriers for many farmers to use QDS. To achieve increased production in rice QDS, the government should create mechanisms to improve access of farmers to QDS. Microfinance institutions and rural banks should be encouraged to reduce some of their restrictions to access to credit with emphasis on the complex and tiresome form filling procedures which discourage the majority of farmers from patronizing their products. More attention should be paid to access agriculture information and technology, improving extension advisory services, and then advising farmers on how to access information through the radio, television and the mobile phone platforms.
Keywords: adoptions, attitude, quality declared seed
Drivers of Quality Declared Seed Use in Tanzania: Evidence from Kilombero District (Published)
This paper examines the drivers of rice Quality Declared Seed (QDS) use in Tanzania using data gathered through farmers survey from randomly selected villages in Kilombero District, Tanzania. A cross-sectional research design was used to collect information from 100 randomly selected rice farmers. In addition, focus group discussions and key informant interviews were also conducted to complement and allow triangulation of data. Qualitative data was analyzed using content analysis. The results showed that farmers had access to rice QDS but were faced with some challenges such as lack of awareness on rice QDS and lack of capital to purchase rice QDS. Moreover, the number of farmers presently using rice QDS seeds in the study area was still below half of the farmers’ population. The study therefore concludes that there is a viable opportunity to enhance more farmers to adopt and use rice QDS in the study area through proper information dissemination and provision of support and training needed by the farmers to maximize their use of rice QDS.
Keywords: Drivers, Rice, Technology, adoptions, kilombero, quality declared seed, recycled seed