Consortia Platform in Enhancing Farmers Access to Market in Tanzania

Agriculture remains a major source of revenue for the United Republic of Tanzania, contributing more than a quarter of the country's GDP while employing up to 80% of the workforce. It has a high potential to contribute to poverty reduction and economic development. The sector is however dominated by smallholder farmers whose productivity and income remained stagnated due to many challenges, of which is poor knowledge of market mechanisms and how to link with buyer groups to sell their produce/products. To address this challenge particularly among paddy (rice) farmers in Sengerema District in Nwanza Region, a market linkage approach known as consortia platform model is being employed. This study investigated the effectiveness of this approach (consortia platform) by identifying the benefits or supports derived by the smallholder paddy farmers and also ascertain the change in productivity leading to improvement in level of sales and profitability as a result of their involvement in the platform. The policy implication of this would be; effective functioning of producer and marketing groups, sustainable management of consortia platforms by all stakeholders.