Browsing by Author "Magesa, Mawazo"

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Access and use of agricultural market information by smallholder farmers: Measuring informational capabilities
(WILEY, 2020-04-03) Magesa, Mawazo; Michael, Kisangiri; Ko, Jesuk
While farmers sell their crops, middlemen provide a linkage between them, markets and buyers. Middlemen have good knowledge of working conditions of markets and have access to agricultural market information. Due to poor access to markets and agricultural market information by smallholders, there is a feeling that middlemen benefit more while farmers sell their crops. Good access to markets and market information may help farmers bypass middlemen while selling crops and thus benefit more. Thus, it is best to improve the informational capabilities (ICs) of farmers in agricultural marketing. Thus, this research measured ICs of farmers accessing market information, through a program NINAYO, while selling their crops. The research utilized the informational, psychological, social, and economic dimensions of the empowerment framework in identifying capability indicators to formulate survey questions. Data were collected from smallholders in six regions in Tanzania. The analysis utilized measures of life satisfaction and results showed that about half of the variation in the dependent variable, satisfaction with capabilities, was explained by the model. Backward elimination analysis confirmed that life satisfaction is multidimensional. Robustness test confirmed a positive relationship between satisfaction and capabilities. Overall, results confirmed ICs are multidimensions, their improvement empowers farmers in agricultural marketing.
Website Development: The Case of Agricultural Extension Providers in Tanzania
(ijasre, 2022-02) Ngessa, Victor; Michael, Kisangiri; Mtei, Kelvin; Magesa, Mawazo
This study examined current practice in websites development among organizations in Tanzania that provide agricultural extension services to smallholder farmers. Google search was used to get a list of respondent organizations. A questionnaire, interviews, and a review of the websites owned by organizations under study were used to collect data. Other than websites, it was found that organizations use manual documents, physical visits, radios, SMSs, TVs, and social networks to disseminate information to smallholder farmers. Websites development was either done in-house or outsourced and the focus was to have websites that cater to the information needs of different stakeholders including smallholder farmers. Information on websites included contacts, announcements, specific information for farmers, with some of the information not directly relating to smallholder farmers. This led websites to contain lots of information which might affect the usability of those websites by smallholder farmers hence not benefiting from the information contained. This was the case for all websites. Also, the involvement of smallholder farmers during website development was low. Websites for agricultural extension providers were developed either in-house or outsourced. The government-owned agency (e-GA), commercial companies, and staff were among developers for the websites. Communication between stakeholders during the development process was easier for in-house development as compared to when websites were developed outside. Websites developed were either internally maintained or maintained outside organizations, with internal maintenance being cheaper compared to when maintenances were done outside organizations. To develop quality websites from smallholder farmers’ point of view their involvement should be high and the websites and the contained information should be easier to access with minimal information. Also, websites should be professionally designed and developed to focus more on the provision of agricultural extension services