Information Accessibility for Sunflower Growers in Tanzania

Abstract

The role of information for the effectual functioning of businesses is a central concern for many economists. According to Bello and Obinne (2012) as cited by Ozawa (1999) and Adefuye and Adedoyin (1993), the extent to which people progress in as far as agriculture is concerned largely depends on the availability and access to accurate and reliable information. According to one survey conducted on Marketing and market access for  Tanzanian  financial institutions which included both agricultural marketing cooperative societies (AMCOs) and savings and credit cooperatives (SACCOs), results clearly implicated that there were various  inadequacies to many variables (URT, February 2012). Many stakeholders acknowledged to lacking adequate knowledge on marketing skills and market information dissemination. Rebekah (2005) argues that communication plays a major role in nearly every aspect of life. Effective communication does not only help people solve problems but also improve life. Communication experts have further argued that poor communication is at the root of many problems and that effective communication is one solution to these problems. She defines communication as the processes of understanding and sharing meaning. Communication is considered a process because it is an activity, exchange or a set of behaviors that occur over time, its components include people, the message, channel, feedback, encoding and decoding.

Key words: information flow, communication, agricultural value chain, sunflower, capability.