Heifer In-trust schemes and incomes of smallholder households in the Highland and Semiarid regions of Tanzania

Livestock Research for Rural Development, 201 5; 2 7 (1)Poor household incomes are a major challenge to smallholder farming households’ expenses in most of Tanzania Njombe and Shinyanga regions inclusive. The Heifer In-trust Schemes (HIS) were introduced in these regions purposely to enable vulnerable households to improve their food and income security hence raising such households’ purchasing power. The study’s main objective was to assess the role of the HIS to smallholder households’ major expenditures in the above-mentioned areas. Specifically, the study aimed at exploring the assets and income acquired through the beneficiary household’s involvement in the HIS and at examining their ability to meet children’s educational and households' health costs. The study adopted a cross-sectional design whereby data were collected from 402 randomly selected HIS beneficiaries’ households using a structured questionnaire. In addition, nine focus group discussions involving 135 discussants were conducted to complement information collected through the questionnaire. Children’s education, assets acquisition and food accounted for 36.2, 24.3 and 10.5% of the income accrued from the HIS dairy enterprise. The benefits in Njombe (a highland area) and Shinyanga (a semi-arid area) zones were similar