Research in Agricultural Sciences (Jan 2024)
Impact of Combined Rural Initiatives for Participatory Agricultural Transformation and Farmer Market School Approaches on Income and Food Security
Abstract
Interventions to increase agricultural production have always been biased toward production without much consideration of market strategies. It is against this background, several development agents initiated a project that combines rural initiatives for participatory agricultural transformation and farmer market school approaches with the aim of transforming smallholder farmers’ agricultural production and marketing, respectively. The objective of this study is to examine the impact of combined rural initiatives for participatory agricultural transformation and farmer market school approaches on income and food security. The present study applied a cross-sectional research design, and the data used were gathered from a sample of 321 farming households, selected using a multi-stage random sampling procedure. Of the 321 respondents, 93 were farmers who participated in rural initiatives for participatory agricultural transformation and farmer market school, and 100 and 128 were farmers who participated in rural initiatives for participatory agricultural transformation interventions and non-participants, respectively. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and propensity score matching for quantitative data, while content analysis was applied for analyzing qualitative information. The results indicate that, across farmers enrolled in rural initiatives for participatory agricultural transformation and farmer market school and rural initiatives for participatory agricultural transformation only, and nonparticipants, there was no significant difference in levels of income and food diversity, although there was a positive difference. The results of rural initiatives for participatory agricultural transformation and farmer market school and rural initiatives for participatory agricultural transformation-only interventions were Tanzania Shilling (TZS) 73,947 and TZS 51,796, respectively, with food diversity scores of 7.454 and 7.418. The drought faced by farmers during piloting was found to be the main challenge for the insignificance impact of the approaches. The results of our study suggest that the adoption of combined rural initiatives for participatory agricultural transformation and farmer market school in agricultural interventions is likely to improve smallholder farmers’ income and food security. The two approaches should be promoted to produce additional benefits in terms of productivity and land use efficiency.
Keywords
