Inclusion of Small-Scale Farmers in the Spice Value Chain in Zanzibar, Tanzania

The overall purpose of this paper is to investigate whether small-scale farmers are included or excluded in the spice chain in Zanzibar, Tanzania. The paper addresses a problem of poor governance model of spice industry. In specific, the paper analyses the roles of key actors (government, private sector spice companies and producer organizations/NGOs) in governance and regulation of spice chain with respect to the inclusion of small farmers. The paper gives overview of spice industry in Zanzibar, including its organization and actors involved. The paper employed qualitative approach and methods in primary data collection (fieldwork in Zanzibar) such as focus group discussions with small-scale farmers and key informant interviews with buyers and exporters of spices (both government and private companies) and other relevant institutions by collecting their views and experiences on research topic. It also employed re-view of the literature on the relevant concepts and learning case studies from other developing countries. As a result of analysis of data collected during fieldwork, the major findings shows that the regulation and governance of spice industry in Zanzibar does not promote inclusion of small-scale farmers. For example, the farmers are excluded from accessing profitable markets, support services and interaction with other actors within and outside the industry/chain. The study also revealed the farmers become less embedded in their networks or producer organizations for the active and profitable participation in spice business; and the capabilities of the farmers in spice production and marketing are low due to lack of learning of new knowledge. The paper concludes by exploring factors determine inclusion of small-scale farmers and possible solutions for more embeddedness or improving social relationships among the farmers in spice industry in context of Zanzibar. It also suggests future research on a problem of cloves smuggling which is practiced by the farmers.