Correlation between livelihood outcomes attained by smallholder sugarcane outgrowers in morogoro region, tanzania and their household characteristics

Livelihood outcomes among sugarcane outgrowers are substantially determined by their participation in contract farming. However, there is a debate among authors on whether there is a correlation between farmers’ household characteristics and their livelihood outcomes or not. Responding to the debate; this paper measured the correlation between livelihood outcomes attained by farmers and their household characteristics. The paper employed a cross-sectional study design and 300 sugarcane outgrowers were interviewed. Using the IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences Statistics, data were analysed descriptively and inferentially. For the latter analysis, all independent variables recorded at the ratio level were correlated with the dependent variable using Pearson Correlation to determine the levels of correlation and significance with the dependent variable. It was found that three out of five independent variables that were correlated with the dependent variable had significant correlation. Land size under sugarcane was moderately correlated with sugarcane yield and the monetary value from sugarcane (r = 0.573 and 0.529 respectively), and the correlation was highly significant (p < 0.001). It is concluded that household characteristics are helpful in improving smallholder farmers’ livelihood outcomes. Therefore, available sugarcane farmers’ associations in the study area should consider farmers’ characteristics in raising their livelihood outcomes.