ASSESSMENT OF ECONOMIC CONSTRAINTS ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF HEIFER PROJECT IN TANZANIA

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the economic constraints on the effectiveness of heifer project in Tanzania, using a case study of heifer groups in Mbinga Town Council, Ruvuma Region More specifically, this study evaluated the achievements of Heifer project, economic factors affecting Heifer project and assess the effects of control mechanisms on the effectiveness of Heifer project in Tanzania. A case study research design was used in this study. The study involved 108 participants as the sample size, whereby, fourteen (14) were leaders from farmer groups and 184 were members from farmer groups, who were selected using purposive and stratified sampling techniques. The questionnaire and interview were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze quantitative data while content analysis was used to analyze qualitative data collected from participants in order to decode their meaning. Findings from this study reported that, the major achievement of Heifer project in Mbinga were; high efficiency in project implementation, improved agricultural production among farmers, improved quality of agricultural outputs and high agricultural profits. The economic factors affecting Heifer project were; insufficient funds to implement project activities, poor budgeting and budgeting skills among famers and leaders, mismanagement of resources where some individuals use project resources for their personal benefits and poor allocation of resources for the project. Lastly, findings reported the significant effect of control mechanisms for Heifer project, for instance, the effective monitoring and evaluation has resulted into higher agricultural productivity, adequate agricultural infrastructure has resulted into higher production, good governance has resulted into higher efficiency, quality control has resulted into quality of agricultural outputs and continuous quality improvement has resulted into improved agricultural production. We recommend the PO-RALG should allocate resources effectively on agricultural projects, particularly Heifer project. For each fiscal year, the government has a special budget for agricultural projects, hence the responsible officials should ensure that these resources are used to promote agricultural projects.