Constraints in Chickpea Transportation in the Lake Zone of Tanzania

Abstract

Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) is an important food legume providing food and income for farm families, is used as medicine, and provides the country with foreign earnings. Despite its importance, its marketing system still performs below par. The main objective of the study aimed at identifying the constraints facing traders in the chickpea marketing and determining the optimal quantities and costs of chickpea distribution from four supply sources to three markets. Eighty traders were interviewed using a structured questionnaire. The analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences and SOLVER–Microsoft Excel computer software. The findings indicate that the total cost of procuring chickpea was US $47,745 that was much higher than the optimal total cost calculated at US $37,710. Transport took up a large proportion of the marketing costs accounting for 45.3% of the total marketing costs. Transportation costs are high as a result of poorly maintained feeder roads, seasonal supplies of chickpeas, lack of information about prices, and haphazard choice of transportation routes. To reach the optimal solution, the distribution schedule was re-allocated, thus increasing the number of routes from 9 to 11 and changing the quantities transported in different routes. This change would result in a reduction of costs by 21%. Moreover improvement of road network, storage facilities, farmers’ market education and information, and formation of traders’ association would reduce marketing costs and hence increase marketing efficiency.