Financial Products and Services for Smallholder Farmers in Tanzania: An Assessment of the MIVARF Programme in Iringa Region

Abstract

One of the major challenges facing smallholder farmers in Africa is access to financial support to scale up their agricultural production and income. This challenge is also faced by rural farmers in Tanzania who make up about 80 percent of the country’s population. As part of the efforts to provide solution to the issue of rural financing facing smallholder farmers, the government of Tanzania in partnership with the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has created the Marketing Infrastructure Value Addition and Rural Finance Support (MIVARF) Programme to contribute to reduction of rural poverty and accelerate economic growth on a sustainable basis. This study assessed and established the available financial products and services (FPS) extended to smallholder farmer beneficiaries ofthe MIVARF Programme in the Iringa Region ofTanzania. Primary data collected from a field survey in two districts of Iringa Region were used. A well-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the beneficiaries while key  informant interview was adopted for institutions offering financial products and services. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistical techniques. The findings show that the MIVARF Programme has contributed to improvement in the socio-economic wellbeing of the beneficiaries. Women were also given adequate consideration in the design of financial products and services for smallholder farmers in rural areas in Iringa, Tanzania.

Keywords: Smallholder farmers, Financial products and services, Rural areas, Tanzania