Agriculture Productivity and Farmers ’ Health in Tanzania: Analysis on Maize Subsector

AbstractIn recent years, concerns over farmers ’ health and productivity have drawn great attention due to the global agenda on food security and the eradication of extreme poverty. Moreover, studies have proven that, the shortage of food in developing countries has been largely connected to climate change, but no study has examined to what ex tent diseases have affected agricultural productivity in these countries. This paper, therefore, examines the effects of farmers’ health on agricultural productivity focusing on Tanzania’s maize subsector using panel survey data 2019/20. The paper employed Ordinary least Square and Two Stage Lea st Square (2SLS) to address the endogeneity of health variables in productivity equation. Findings revealed that major illnesses among farmers in Tanzania were malaria (27%), HIV/AIDS (22%), cholera (18%), typhoid (15%), schistosomiasis (9%), non communicable diseases (6%) and the side effects of a gricultural chemical inputs (3%). Additionally, having contracted diseases, farmers’ productivity has been lowered significantly and differently across all diseases such as HIV/AIDS (66.8%), malaria (56.3%), cholera (25.1%), typhoid (11.75%), non communicable diseases (29%) and schistosomiasis (1 .4%). This paper recommends that agricultural development programs in developing countries should take into account the improvement of rural health care services. Moreover, due to the economic characteristics of most of the rural farmers, the study r...
Source: Global Social Welfare - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Source Type: research