Financing agricultural marketing in Tanzania: a case study of small scale millers in Dar es Salaam and Morogoro regions

The purpose of this study was to identify the sources of finance available to small scale maize and paddy millers in Dar es Salaam and Morogoro regions. Specifically the study aimed at identifying different sources of finance to small scale millers and describing the mode of financial arrangements, analyze the main factors that influence small scale millers access to credit and compare their performance. Structured questionnaire was used to collect information from the sampled millers. Checklist was used to obtain information from financial institutions. Major tools for analysis were descriptive statistics including means, standard deviations and cross tabulations. Logistic and linear regressions were used to determine factors that influence small scale millers access to formal loans and size of loan respectively. Descriptive results show both formal and informal credit to be used in the study area. However formal loans were found to be more used by maize millers than paddy millers. These results provide an indication of the difficulty in accessing formal sources of credit, forcing enterprises to rely more on their savings and informal sources. Quantitative results indicate education and experience in business to influence access to credit at P<0.05. The gross margin analysis of the milling operation was positive for both maize and paddy millers. Furthermore the gross margin between millers with access to formal credit and without access was significant different at P