Organic Spices Farming in West Districts, Zanzibar: It’s Contribution to Income of Smallholder Farmers

Abstract

Aims: In recent years, organic agriculture has been gaining considerable importance. Many farmers today show interest all over the world in organic farming. The concept of organic farming is not new, but it has been scantly studied. Organic spice farming is therefore, requires to be studied widely. Spice production is a popular economic activity in Zanzibar. The purpose of this study was to assess the contribution of organic spice farming to income of the smallholder farmers. Study Design: The study adopted a cross-sectional research design. Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in two districts of Zanzibar, the West and Central districts between August 2018 and September 2018. Methodology: A random sampling procedure was used to obtain 120 households. The households were categorized from three clusters namely: merely organic, certified organic and inorganic spice farming farmers.  Data were collected using a household questionnaire survey. Results: Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Among the three types of spice farming, inorganic spice farming averagely produced 174.3 kg/household, followed by merely organic (86.3 kg/household) and certified organic (70.2 kg/household). However, certified spice farming households earned in average 565 900 TAS higher than others (merely organic (361 170 TAS) and inorganic (350 500 TAS)). Further, certified spices contributed to 26.2% of the total household’s income, followed by merely organic (23.1%) and inorganic (19.0%) spices. Conclusion: The study concludes that spice farming increased income among households. Therefore, there is a need of putting more effort in spice farming improvement, particularly certified organic spice farming as it gives high earnings to the households.