Empirical Methods Sample Clauses

Empirical Methods. The study entailed review of literature together with collection and analysis of secondary data. The secondary data comprised of aggregate data on national export from Tanzania bureau of statistics, level of production obtained from DALDO‟s office and other published sources on the major pigeonpea producing areas in Tanzania. Information from these secondary sources was augmented with collection and analysis of two primary data sets: farm – level production and post farm level marketing data. The farm – level data was comprised of production data from 613 randomly sampled households from 24 different villages in Kondoa, Babati, Karatu and Arumeru conducted in 2008 and covered the year 2007/2008 cropping season. The post farm–level data include information from a rapid market survey for both green and dry pigeonpea conducted on 42 respondents in Babati District, Arusha town and Dar es Salaam city in 2009 for the year 2007/2008. These intermediaries included rural assemblers, rural wholesalers, urban wholesalers, urban open air retailers, and urban exporters. The rural market intermediaries (primary respondents were sampled from Babati district while the urban market intermediaries (tertiary respondents) in Arusha and Dar es Salaam were generated from the secondary respondent) in Babati district. Marketing costs were taken to include both transaction costs and standard marketing costs (transport, assembly, grading/sorting). Measured transaction costs included the reported costs of finding a buyer/seller, costs of monitoring/inspecting the quality of grain being traded, and costs of negotiating prices. While exchange is through contractual arrangement, the costs of reaching an agreement and monitoring and enforcing the term of the contract all constitute transaction costs. The standard marketing costs considered in this study included the costs of assembling the produce, grading/sorting, transportation, and storage, among others, The standard marketing costs included transport costs incurred during both buying and selling activities, i.e., transport from seller to store and from store to buyer. In addition, marketing costs included costs paid for labor to clean the grain, storage costs, loading and offloading costs, security/watchman costs, council charges, shelling costs (for vegetable pigeonpea), processing costs, packaging costs, custom clearing costs for exporters, and bank charges. Most of these costs have associated indirect implicit costs in completing...