ABSTRACTLake Victoria fisheries are important to Tanzanian food security, employment, and foreign exchange, but they have experienced declining performance, largely due to overfishing. This paper studies technical efficiency and skipper skill using Tanzanian fishery data for the two major species, Nile perch and dagaa. The relative level of efficiency is high in both fisheries and several observable variables linked to skipper skill significantly explain the efficiency level.
ABSTRACTThis paper analyzes the causes for regulatory compliance, using traditional deterrence variables and potential moral and social variables. We use self-reported data from 459 Tanzanian artisanal fishers in Lake Victoria. The results indicate that the decision to be either a non-violator or a violator, as well as the violation rate – if the latter – are influenced by changes in deterrence variables like the probability of detection and punishment and also by legitimacy and social variables. We also identify a small group of fishers who react neither to normative aspects nor to traditional deterrence variables but persistently violate the regulation.
This study examines the linkage between the profitability of firms measured by return on assets (ROA) and environmental performance measured by eco-efficiency and also the impact of a good environmental management system (EMS) on profitability and eco-efficiency of firms. These environmental management practices were captured by the type of EMS a firm adopts that classified firms as either environmental leaders or environmental laggards. To achieve this panel data regression model with ROA as the dependent variable and eco-efficiency scores as the regressors was performed. The results suggest that there is a potential gain in the profitability of the firm by improving eco-efficiency in resource use. Furthermore, proactive firms are found to perform better than reactive firms in terms of profitability and eco-efficiency but firms that combine both proactive and reactive EMS perform even better, which shows the benefit of adopting commitment-based approaches alongside the compliance-based approaches to environmental management.
AbstractWhere joint forest management has been introduced into Tanzania, 'volunteer' patrollers take responsibility for enforcing restrictions over the harvesting of forest resources, often receiving as an incentive a share of the collected fine revenue. Using an optimal enforcement model, we explore how that share, and whether villagers have alternative sources of forest products, determines the effort patrollers put into enforcement and whether they choose to take a bribe rather than honestly reporting the illegal collection of forest resources. Without funds for paying and monitoring patrollers, policy makers face tradeoffs over illegal extraction, forest protection and revenue generation through fine collection.
The Mwalimu Nyerere Professorial Chair in Pan-African Studies was established at the University of Dar es Salaam in 2008. The main objective of the chair is to reinvigorate intellectual debate on the campus and stimulate basic research on burning issues facing the country and the continent from a pan-African perspective. This is the first state of the art paper published by the chair. The Agrarian Question in Tanzania. There are about four million peasant families in Tanzania. They farm on the smallest scale, the average farm being two acres in size. The principal agricultural equipmentis the hand hoe. Since the onset of the colonial era, those in authority have pursued policies to dominate the peasantry. It is argued that the small scale of operations has contributed to the widespread poverty among farmers. There is still good agricultural land that is not farmed, but the current land tenure of peasants reproduces itself on new farmland. The conclusion is that in order to accelerate agricultural development, land tenure must be institutionalized. ; Contents: Part A: Conceptual and Theoretical Issues - The Agrarian Question: Conceptual Issues - Theoretical Issues - Part B: African Perspectives on the Agrarian Question - Agrarian Change and Socioeconomic Transformation in Africa - The Dynamics of Land Tenure Systems in Africa - Part C: The Agrarian Question in Tanzania - Historical Perspectives on the Agrarian Question - Contemporary Perspectives on the Agrarian Question - Forms of Accumulation and the Agrarian Question - Accumulation by Dispossession and the Agrarian Question - Agro-fuels, Large-Scale Food Production and New Land Grabs - Land Tenure, Land Reform and Peasant Agriculture - Selected Cases Reflecting the Agrarian Question in Tanzania - Conclusion and Recommendations
Promotion and supporting the adoption of land management and conservation technologies (LMCTs) among poor farming households has been considered to improve crop yields as well as production technical efficiency (TE). This article compares production efficiency between adopters and nonadopters of LMCTs in Tanzania. Using national panel data, the study applied stochastic frontier model to estimate the TE of adopters and nonadopters. The findings show that adopters of LMCTs had a relatively significantly higher TE (0.73) than their nonadopter counterparts (0.69). Therefore, promotion and supporting the adoption of LMCTs among smallholder farmers is pertinent for improving their TE as well as for increasing crop yield, thereby reducing encroachment into forest areas. There is also a need to understand how adopters and nonadopters of LMCTs are affected by different factors when designing the policies that promote the adoption of LMCTs among the smallholder farmers for sustainable increase of agricultural productivity and TE.
This study identifies the determinants of households' willingness to pay for an improvement in solid waste-collection services based on 381 households in Kampala. Employing the double-bounded contingent valuation method, households' mean willingness to pay for improved solid waste collection service was estimated to be USh 2,439 per month. Both the decision to pay and the amount households are willing to pay for improved solid waste collection services are influenced by income, education, age, and home ownership. A socially acceptable fee which the majority of people are willing to pay should be set to avoid the free-rider problem.
PurposeThis paper aims to examine the level of economic efficiency and factors that influence economic efficiency among seed potato producers in South-western Uganda.Design/methodology/approachThe paper analyses the economic efficiency of 499 informal and 137 formal seed producers using primary data collected through a structured questionnaire. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to select the study sites and specific farmers. A one-step estimation procedure of normalized translog cost frontier and inefficiency model was employed to determine the level of economic efficiency and the influencing factors.FindingsThe results showed that mean economic efficiencies were 91.7 and 95.2% for informal and formal seed potato producers, respectively. Furthermore, results show significant differences between formal and informal seed potato producers in economic efficiency at a one percent level. Market information access, credit access, producers' capacity and experience increase the efficiency of informal while number of potato varieties, market information access and producers' experience increase economic efficiency for formal counterparts.Research limitations/implicationsMost seed potato producers, especially the informal ones do not keep comprehensive records of their production and marketing activities. This required more probing as answers depended on memory recall.Practical implicationsFuture research could explore panel data approach involving more cropping seasons with time variant economic efficiency and individual unobservable characteristics that may influence farmers' efficiency to validate the current findings.Social implicationsThe paper shows that there is more potential for seed potato producers to increase their economic efficiency given the available technology. This has a direct implication on the economy through increased investment in the production and promotion of high yielding seed potato varieties to meet the growing national demand for potatoes.Originality/valueThe paper bridges the gap in literature on economic efficiency among seed potato producers, specifically in applying the normalized translog cost frontier approach in estimating economic efficiency in the context of potato sub-sector in Uganda.Peer reviewThe peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/IJSE-10-2021-0641
