| dc.description.abstract | A current study was carried out to assess factors influencing pearl millet production in Bahi district located in semi-arid central Tanzania. Cross-sectional research design was adopted. A total of 96 respondents were involved in this study. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed during data analysis. The study findings indicate that the mean age of smallholder farmers was 48.4 years and 55.2 % of respondents were males. Also, findings revealed that 92.7% of the respondents were married and the size of the household was 5.3 persons. Furthermore, the study findings showed that the mean farm size under pearl millet is 2.7 acres and the average pearl millet yield was 405.2 kg/acre. Additionally, results disclosed that 80.2% of the farmers used family labour using hand hoes; followed by 18.8% who used draught power and only 1.0% used hired labour with hand hoes. Moreover, age of farmer, size of farming household, education of the famers, off-farm activities, and cultivated area significantly (p < 0.05) influenced pearl millet production. The strategies to increase levels of pearl millet production could place more emphasis on encouraging farmers to utilize modern farming practices to increase yields. | en_US |
