Market and other Constraints to Smallholder Coffee Development in Tanzania

摘要

The paper uses the results of representative surveys among rural farm households in the Kilimanjaro and Ruvuma regions in Tanzania to explore empirically the structure of coffee production by smallholders in the major coffee producing regions of the country. The results indicate that farm households are differentiated in both asset ownership but mainly through agricultural productivity. Analysis of allocative efficiency concludes that family labour is substantially over utilized, suggesting considerable excess labour on farm households. On the contrary farm households appear to utilize less purchased inputs than would be commensurate with their estimated marginal productivities. The major reason appears to be lack of or inadequate credit to purchaseinputs. Analysis of coffee tree investments reveals that such investment is characterized by irreversibility, uncertainty and adjustment costs. The results imply that improvements in land productivity of farmers are affected significantly by access to farm inputs, which can be facilitated by access to credit. Hence considerable effort must be given to policies and institutions that facilitate easier access by farmers to credit for purchased inputs.