Determinants of Rice Commercialization among Smallholder Farmers for Rice Production at Wembere Basin in Iramba District, Tanzania

The agricultural sector in Tanzania is contributing 30% of GDP and 65% of employment. The rice production of Tanzania accounts approximately 17% of total grain production, and the country has nearly achieved self-sufficiency in rice. Rice production is the most important sub-sector in Tanzania since it plays a crucial role in the creation of jobs, income generation, especially from rice exports, food security and poverty reduction. This paper examined the determinants of rice commercialization among smallholder farmers for rice production in Wembere basin in Iramba district, which guided by double hurdle model and Transaction Cost Theory (TCT). The research design was cross-sectional data collected in 2023 and 2024 from 117 sample sizes of rice farmer households selected through a simple random sampling technique and analysable to obtain Household Commercialization Index (HCI), coefficients and descriptive statistics. The finding results of this paper show that the level of rice commercialization level had (HCI=95.13%) in 2023 and (HCI=94.79%) in 2024 of rice production. While the multiple regression analysis for sex, age of household, education level, family size, market distance, price of rice purchased, bank loan use and use of improved seeds had a significant at 5% level (p<0.05). This indicates that parameters influence rice production participation and a high degree of commercialization and production. Furthermore, the results reveal that households participating in agricultural commercialization would experience improved food security through increased crop diversity. This paper concluded that demographic, economic and institutional factors had a positive impact on commercialization and determined the level of agricultural commercialization for smallholder farmers so as to increase the notion of rice farming. The study recommends that there is a need for the government to support agricultural commercialization for facilitating bank loans and improved seed toward rice production.