Effects of rural-urban linkages on markets access in Kibaigwa Emerging Urban Centre, Kongwa District, Tanzania

MSc. Dissertation

This study assessed the effects of rural-urban linkages on markets access in Kibaigwa Emerging Urban Centre (EUC), in Kongwa District. Specifically, the study aimed at characterizing the agricultural markets; examining factors affecting market accessibility to smallholder farmers; determining the contribution of rural-urban linkages on expansion of markets, market networks, and access to market and livelihood strategies in Kongwa District. A total of 202 respondents were randomly selected, whereby 120 were smallholder farmers, 42 were traders and 40 were transporters. Gini coefficient and descriptive statistic were used to characterize the existing markets. The results show that there was high concentration in the market with low degree of competitiveness. In estimating the factors affecting market access by farmers, binary logistic regression was used. The results show that distance from home to the market, road conditions, availability of agricultural information, the means of transport owned and age of the farmer, statistically influenced market access by smallholder farmers in Kibaigwa. Moreover, network analysis, descriptive statistics and Sustainable Rural Livelihood (SRL) framework were used to determine the contribution of rural-urban linkages on markets and market networks expansion, and access to livelihood resources/strategies. The results revealed that through economic, marketing and social activities market networks expand from the villages to the urban. Furthermore, the results from Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) show that the linkage contributes more to EUC than to rural farmers on access to market. However, rural farmers were found to have low access to livelihood resources/strategies than EUC farmers. In conclusion, rural-urban linkages have a great impact on markets access and market expansion for smallholder farmers if they are well informed about quality and price of produce and are connected to towns and small towns market centres. Therefore, it is recommended that the government and agricultural development partners should improve infrastructures and provide agricultural information to farmers so as to enable them benefit effectively from such linkages.