Newly introduced AVRDC vegetable technologies in reduction of income poverty: Babati District, Tanzania

Abstract

The use of traditional technologies is one of the reasons for the poor income generation in Tanzania for vegetable growers: The Tanzanian Government has prioritized agriculture sector as a major means to fight poverty, but little emphasis has been put on the cultivation of vegetables. Hence no technological advancement in vegetables, this situation leads to small amount of yield and consequently low supply of the product hence low income generation. However, the government has done less, but, some nongovernmental organizations such as AVRDC, TAHA and others have helped to innovate, facilitate and also monitor vegetable activities (introduction of new technologies). Although, non-governmental organizations have tried to introduce new technologies to farmers the problem remained cost effectiveness of technology towards income poverty reduction. The present study was conducted in Babati District, Manyara Region, Tanzania; specifically the study was designed to assess the profitability of the newly introduced technologies towards income poverty reduction. A total of 77 farmers were investigated by interview method, purposive sampling technique was applied and Paired sample T-test was used to assess the effectiveness of technologies and the results of the study revealed that newly introduced technologies were significant at p-value = 0.028 and 0.028 for cost and revenue, respectively. In conclusion, the study findings show that, newly introduced technologies can be adopted by vegetable producers because profit gained by using newly introduced technologies can dramatically reduce income poverty of vegetable producers.