Factors affecting vegetable business incomes of vegetable vendors: a case of Kindondoni District, Tanzania

Abstract

Vegetables are one of the cornerstones of human nutrition, vital for a healthy and balanced diet and generation of income. However, in most developing countries especially in Africa, vegetable businesses frequently face problems such as highly skewed production, untrained labor, shortage of standardized products, and absence of processing and packing facilities. This study examined the performance of vegetable market vendors at Kawe market in Kinondoni District, Dar es salaam. Specifically, the study intended to assess the factors affecting vegetable vendor incomes generated from vegetable business. The study therefore sought to establish whether sex, age, education level, experience and cash from other sources of income have effects on the incomes generated from vegetable business. Simple random and purposive sampling techniques were used to get a total of 75 respondents. A regression analysis was performed using statistics and data programmer (stata) for the analysis of quantitative data. Findings revealed that sex, age, years of experience and income from other sources of income had a low p-value (< 0.05) implying that, these factors had impact in the vendors’ total income from the vegetable business, except the education level of vendors (p value > 0.05). Government agencies should provide education and loan guarantees to vegetable business vendors to help them grow.