Improving access to market information for smallholder indigenous chicken farmers, the case of Misungwi district, Tanzania. By William Valentino Kikoti September 2018, The Netherlands © Copyright William Valentino Kikoti, 2018. All rights reserved Improving access to market information for smallholder indigenous chicken farmers, the case of Misungwi district, Tanzania. A Research Project Submitted to Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the degree of MSc. in Agricultural Production Chain management, Specialization Livestock Chains. By William Valentino Kikoti September 2018, The Netherlands Supervised by: Jan Hoekstra Examined by: Oude Luttikhuis, Resie Maars © Copyright William Valentino Kikoti, 2018. All rights reserved Acknowledgements First of all, I would like to thank the Almighty God for giving me the power, knowledge, endurance, strength, mind, and guidance to complete my work. Secondly, my gratitude and appreciation go to Royal Netherlands Government for the provision of funds through Netherlands Fellowship Programme (NFP) that has given me the chance to pursue Master Studies in Agricultural Production Chain Management (APCM) specializing in Livestock Production Chain. Special thanks go to my supervisor Mr. Jan Hoekstra for his vigorous support, valuable inputs, encouragement, and timely feedback. His comments enlighten the success of this research. I would like to thank the Agricultural Production Chain Management (APCM) course coordinator, Mr. Marco Verschuur for his, support, comments and guidance during the entire period of the course. This achievement would be difficult without his help. My special thanks go to all staff and lecturers of the Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Science for their support throughout my studies. I am very grateful to my organization; Tanzania Livestock Research Institute (TALIRI) for giving me a study leave to undertake my studies. I am thankful to the government office expertise, traders, Middlemen and smallholder chicken farmers for their positive cooperation, valuable time and information provided during my fieldwork. Lastly, to those who were involved but have not mentioned, I am most grateful for your support. God bless you all; God bless Tanzania. i Dedication I dedicate this research work to Almighty God for leading me to complete my research and to my family especially my lovely mother and brother and sisters for their support towards the success of this research. I love you all. ii Table of Contents Acknowledgements ................................................................................................................................. i Dedication............................................................................................................................................... ii List of Figures .......................................................................................................................................... v List of Tables .......................................................................................................................................... vi List of Abbreviation .............................................................................................................................. vii Abstract ............................................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Background ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.2 Problem statement ...................................................................................................................... 2 1.3 Problem owner ............................................................................................................................. 2 1.4 Justification of the study .............................................................................................................. 2 1.5 Research objective ....................................................................................................................... 2 1.6 Research question ........................................................................................................................ 3 1.6.1 Main questions ...................................................................................................................... 3 1.6.2 Sub-questions ........................................................................................................................ 3 1.7 The conceptual framework .......................................................................................................... 3 1.8 Definition of concepts .................................................................................................................. 4 CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW ..................................................................................................... 5 2.1 An overview of the Indigenous chicken sector in Tanzania ........................................................ 5 2.1.1 Indigenous chicken population ............................................................................................. 5 2.1.2 Indigenous chicken value chain and marketing ................................................................... 6 2.2 Market information ...................................................................................................................... 7 2.3 Role of information ...................................................................................................................... 8 2.4 Kind of market information ......................................................................................................... 8 2.5 Sources of market information for smallholder farmers ............................................................ 8 2.6 Provision of market information ................................................................................................. 9 2.7 Constraints facing by smallholder farmers in accessing indigenous chicken market information ......................................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY ...................................................................................... 10 3.1 Description of the study area .................................................................................................... 10 3.2 Research strategy ....................................................................................................................... 11 3.3 Research framework .................................................................................................................. 11 3.4 Data collection and processing .................................................................................................. 12 3.4.1 Desk research ...................................................................................................................... 12 3.4.2 Survey .................................................................................................................................. 12 iii 3.4.3 Interview.............................................................................................................................. 12 3.4.4 Sample selection and size ................................................................................................... 15 3.5 Data analysis ............................................................................................................................... 15 3.6 Limitations of the research ........................................................................................................ 15 CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS ..................................................................................................................... 16 4.1 Results from the survey with smallholder chicken farmers ..................................................... 16 4.1.1 Basic Information of respondent ........................................................................................ 16 4.1.2 Kind of information ............................................................................................................. 19 4.1.3 Source of accessing market information ............................................................................ 21 4.1.4 Market information cost ..................................................................................................... 23 4.1.5 Constraints facing farmers in accessing market information of the indigenous chicken . 24 4.1.6 Ways to improve access to market information of the indigenous chicken ..................... 25 4.2 Result from the Interview .......................................................................................................... 26 4.2.2 Interview with chicken traders ........................................................................................... 26 4.2.3 Extension officers ................................................................................................................ 26 CHAPTER FIVE: DISCUSSION .................................................................................................................. 27 5.1 Existing