An Assessment of the Effectiveness of ASDP on Income Poverty Reduction : A case of Nshishinulu Village, Shinyanga District

The objective of the study was to assess the effectiveness of ASDP on income poverty reduction, a case of Nshishinulu village, Shinyanga district. The study was based on the fact that ASDP has reached the end of its implementation and was on the brink of introducing the second level intervention. Descriptive percentiles as well as multiple linear regression methods were used with a sample of 41 beneficiaries of ASDP services. Provision of agricultural farm inputs, irrigation and Trainings were independent variables and Income poverty reduction was the dependent variable. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). The findings revealed that ASDP has performed poor in reducing poverty to small scale farmers in Tanzania and the economic situation of farmers is still poor. The results show that 82.3% of the respondents group still lives in poverty, even after the multiple years of ASDP interventions. It was further revealed that there are several challenges facing farmers and the government. Respondents mentioned that sustainable irrigation systems should be a priority to be addressed by the government, while government officials mentioned proper allocation of funds as the policy priority. It was recommended that ASDP service provision should reach to farmers as a first priority and the government should address activities which are connected to. Public-private collaboration should also be increased. In the end programs like ASDP are there to firstly support the beneficiaries in order to reach the goals set by implementers. Key words: success of ASDP, Training of farmers, Irrigation production, Access to market, Provision of farm inputs, Income poverty reduction and Agriculture