Country: Tanzania
Location: Kagera, Katavi Region
Professional Staff provided by our Organization: Prof K.N. Njau (Team Leader),Joseph Kangile (Agricultural Economist) , Mr. Evody T. Ndumiwe (Survey Coordinator) 
Name of Client:  The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
Start Date: Jan 2021   Completion date: June 2021   

Narrative Description of Project:

Rice production in Tanzania has increased by 52% in the past 10 years from 2.2 million tons in 2011 to 4.7 million tonnes in 2020 (MoA, 2020). This signifies that there is a need to increase investments into value addition along the rice value chain for creating a market led pull to the production system. Given this trajectory and in supporting market linkages, there has been various efforts to empower rice milling enterprises to advance their management, technology and the general efficiency in rice value addition. These efforts are in line with the Tanzania government strategy of industrialization for stimulating economic transformation and human development. AGRA joined hands with the Government of Tanzania to embrace the industrialization strategy by supporting a number of rice millers in Katavi region.

ENVICON was contracted by AGRA to conduct research study the Evaluation of Rice Millers’ Technical Efficiency in Tanzania. As part of monitoring these AGRA efforts, this study was thought to answer some questions that are arising in relation to the milling enterprises. These questions are whether the project has led to various managerial, technological, and operational gaps between supported and those not supported millers. This includes their level of technical efficiency and whether there are any sources of inefficiency in their milling enterprises. Specifically, the study identified the features of the milling enterprises, their level of technical efficiency, and the factors affecting their efficiency. The study also provides evidence of managerial and technological gaps between rice millers supported by AGRA-funded projects and those not. This study used cross-sectional data from 31 rice milling enterprises in the Katavi region. The study used a combination of approaches in its analytical framework. It included descriptive statistics analysis and an estimation of the stochastic frontier technical efficiency mode

Services Provided by ENVICON:

  • Develop survey instruments including questionnaire;
  • Recruit and train enumerators;
  • Conduct pre-testing of the survey instruments;
  • Carry out sampling procedures and establish sample size;
  • Conduct field survey for interviewing sampled VBAs for data collection;
  • Perform data quality assurance;
  • Carry out data analysis by using combination of approaches in its analytical framework;
  • Prepare draft report with key findings and recommendations;
  • Compile final research report by incorporating comments from review of draft report.