SUPPLY CHAIN ISSUES AFFECTING MARKET ACCESS AMONG SMALLHOLDER MAIZE FARMERS IN MBOZI DISTRICT, TANZANIA

Abstract

This study investigates the issues that affect market access among smallholder maize farmers from a supply chain perspective. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was used to test the relevance of access theory in assessing the effect of supply chain issues on market access. A total of 359 smallholder maize farmers were sampled randomly from Mbozi district in Tanzania for analysis. The effect of supply chain issues on market access were estimated by using marginal effects based on binary logit model. The study’s findings indicate that supply chain-related issues are significant predictors of market access among smallholder maize farmers in the surveyed area. Issues like long marketing and distribution channels, deficient supply chain infrastructure and intensive competition between the supply chains revealed a negative and significant effect on market access among smallholder maize farmers. Besides, better collaborations and networking, appropriate marketing skills and smallholders’ ability in meeting customers’ requirements revealed a positive and significant effect. Based on these results, authors recommend streamlined coordination and collaboration among agricultural multi-tiers, improve supply chain infrastructure and better quality of agricultural products as the important drivers toward enhanced market access among smallholder maize farmers. More specifically, this study enriches scholars and policymakers with information on the supply issues that affect market access among smallholder farmers, offers some managerial implications and direction for further studies.

Keywords

• supply chain
• supply chain issues
• market access
• maize crop
• smallholder farmers