CAPITALIZING ON RICE EXPORT MARKET AMONG SMALLHOLDER FARMERS

Export Market is critical and important aspects to rural poor households. It is a pre-requisite for enhancing agriculture based economic growth through the improvement of competitiveness of farming enterprise and improving rural incomes

Export Market is critical and important aspects to ruralrnpoor households. It is a pre-requisite for enhancing agriculture based economicrngrowth through the improvement of competitiveness of farming enterprise andrnimproving rural incomes. Several studies have been conducted on   market participation of the small-scalernfarmers in rice and other crops marketing in Africa, but, specific informationrnon the extent to which small-scale rice farmers are engaging into exportrnmarkets in Kilosa District is not readily available. This study aimed atrncapitalizing on rice export market among small holder farmers in Kilosa, challenges and opportunitiesrnpurposive and random sampling procedures were employed in selecting thernrespondents. The data collected data, were analyzed using descriptivernstatistics, Binary logistic regression and the Multinomial logistic regressionrnmodel. Results show that socio-economic, institutional and marketrncharacteristics of the small-scale rice farmers varied greatly across markets.rnThe multinomial logistic regression results show that age, level of education,rndistance to markets, and quantities of rice produced, price information andrncontract marketing were key factors that influence participation of farmers inrnexport market in Kilosa District. The problems facing small-scale rice farmersrnwere transport problem and policies and weighing in view of research findings,rnseveral policy proposals are suggested these include disseminatingrninformation’s to rice farmers, forming formal small-scale rice farmer’s groupsrnand improving weighing system.