The Determinants of Farmers’ Choice of Markets for Staple Food Commodities in Dodoma and Morogoro, Tanzania

Institutional and policy-induced factors affect farmers’ decisions on the choice of the marketto sell their staple foods. This results in low motivation to participate in the production and agriculturalcommodities’ commercialization. This study determines specific institutional and policy-inducedfactors affecting the farmers’ decisions regarding the staple food market choice in Tanzania. The studyuses household survey data collected from 820 farmers raising staple food crops (maize, rice, sorghum,and millet) randomly selected from the Dodoma and Morogoro regions, Tanzania. The indexmethod, descriptive statistics, and choice model (multinomial logit model) are used for data analysis.Qualitative policy analysis is used for analyzing policy-induced factors. Findings show a low levelof integration of farmers into staple food markets, with female-headed households facing morehurdles in accessing markets than male-headed households. Age, formal training, the value ofagricultural production, membership in organizations, access to credit, contractual arrangements,and distance to markets are significant factors driving farmers to choose a particular market tosell their produces. Restriction of selling and use of staple food commodities, instability of foodpolicy administration, and procedural operation obstacles are found to be key policy-induced factorsaffecting the marketing of staple food commodities in Tanzania. The scale of production, as depictedby the value of production, and supply contract arrangement with buyers are important factors toensure that farming households excel in lucrative markets through increased economies of scale andthe ability to reach critical volumes for supplying to various markets. Supporting market linkage andinfrastructure, as well as enforcing transparent and non-restrictive food marketing policies, wouldhelp many farmers enter into contractual arrangements that increase market access and improvemarket choices.Peer Reviewe