Abstract:
The avocado is a fruit with healthy and economic importance to smallholder farmers.
As a crop, it is referred to as the green gold of Tanzania. This study investigates
the contribution of avocado farming to farmers livelihood assets. The study was
conducted in two wards in Njombe Town Council, namely Kifanya and Ramadhani.
The study used mixed methods to collect the data including household surveys,
focus group discussions and key informant interviews. A total of 180 avocado
farmers were selected through simple random sampling. Quantitative data were
analysed descriptively using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (IBM SPSS version 20), while qualitative data were analysed through factual and logical
interpretation of the findings. Pearson Chi-square was used to test the statistical
significance of the variables. The results showed that avocado farming had a
positive contribution to the farmers livelihood assets. The contribution was in terms
of financial, social, natural and physical assets. Despite its contribution to livelihood
assets, farmers reported various challenges, including pests and diseases, poor
extension services, shortage of capital and climatic variations. This study
recommends increasing the extension services provided to the farmers with
respect to production and marketing processes
