Participatory appraisal approaches versus sample survey data collection: a case of smallholder farmers well-being ranking in Njombe District, Tanzania

Social scientists and rural development interventionists inTanzania and in Sub-Saharan Africa depend mainly on conventionalsample surveys; in part this is a legacy of their basic training.Participatory rural appraisal and intervention approaches offera varied range of methods. We ask ourselves whether the resultsfrom participatory, rapid appraisals are conflicting and differentto those from sample surveys? This paper compares results ofa Rapid Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) with a conventionalsample survey. These surveys were conducted at the end of 1995and mid-1996 respectively, to establish socio-economic well-beingranks in Njombe district. A comparison of results shows thatthe well-being ranks established using PRA are valid and theapproach is reliable. The three qualitatively established well-beingranks differed empirically in many socio-economic indicators.These include resource endowment, labour force size, agriculturalland, livestock ownership, forest woodlot management, perceptionof food insecurity, technological advances in agricultural productionand natural resource management systems. Results show that thelow well-being group and female-headed households are disadvantaged.The goal of the Hifadhi Ya Mazingira-Njombe project is to developenvironmentally sustainable crop and livestock husbandry practicesin the district. The well-being ranking exercise has strongimplications for the project's strategy. We discuss the adoptedmethodology and implications. The paper recommends that developmentprogrammes and workers in Tanzania and Sub-Saharan Africa oughtto extend their approaches. It is time to include more of theparticipatory, relatively rapid rural appraisal and interventiontechniques. Benefits that they may accrue are time saving, lowercosts, quality information and stakeholder involvement.     

Papua New Guinea: longer term developments and recent economic problems

Papua New Guinea (PNG) has much to learn from the Indonesian economic experience of coping with one booming sector while creating an environment in which the economy could generate jobs. PNG's macroeconomic policy adjustments to the boom-bust cycles which characterise its economy work extremely well by comparison to most other developing countries experiencing the same difficulties. At the microeconomic level, policy improvement has been harder, with the rhetoric far out-distancing the actual advances. The challenge is to improve the productivity of the agricultural sector, to raise the education levels, and to attract investment to provide employment. At present the investment environment is bleak because of the deteriorating law and order situation.     

Impacts of prices and transactions costs on input usage in a liberalizing economy: evidence from Tanzanian coffee growers

Despite improvements in production incentives, agricultural output in Africa remained sluggish through the 1990s. Low use of purchased inputs may be part of the cause of persistently low productivity in African agriculture. This article analyzes the roles of relative prices and transactions costs in explaining low use of chemical inputs among Tanzanian coffee growers. A sample selection model indicates that output prices exert great influence on input purchases and that both fixed and variable transactions costs affect input use decisions. Travel costs in input and output markets have distinct effects on input usage, implying distinct avenues for interventions to promote more intensive use of agricultural inputs.     

Consumer Preferences as Drivers of the Common Bean Trade in Tanzania: A Marketing Perspective

The objective of this study is to determine the impact of bean grain quality characteristics on market price. The data were collected from retail markets in Tanzania. Hedonic pricing provides a statistical estimate of premiums and discounts. Implications for the development of bean markets include the following: (a) extension agents should identify cost-effective ways to educate producers on targeting urban market niches based on consumer preferences for varieties, (b) breeding for bruchid-resistant beans and use of appropriate storage technologies would alleviate the problems of storage damage, and (c) a portfolio of grain quality characteristics to fit consumer preferences in local markets should be required.