Effects of Avocado Farming on Livelihoods and Biodiversity: Perspectives of Smallholder Farmers in Hai and Rungwe Districts, Tanzania

Agriculture production has long been regarded as an important sector for social and economic progress in most developing countries. However, it is also increasingly viewed as posing threats to biodiversity and the environment at large, hence the need for striking a balance between the two goals (economic progress and biodiversity conservation) through the adoption of environmentally friendly and healthy farming practices. In this paper, we use the case of avocado production in the Hai and Rungwe districts of Tanzania to investigate the opinions of smallholder farmers about the effects of avocado production on livelihoods and biodiversity. Specifically, we use the Likert’s scale method to analyse and compare the opinions. The study findings show that smallholder producers had positive perceptions about the effects of avocado production on livelihoods and biodiversity. They viewed avocado farming as the most profitable business compared to other agricultural commodities. The effects of avocado on livelihoods were highly rated ranging from the lowest mean rank of 4.008 for the livelihood and market supports, to the highest of 4.3271, out of 5, for the livelihood protection threshold indicators. There were significant inter-district differences in opinions about the effects of avocado farming on biodiversity, especially for “water” (p = 0.002) and “fauna” indicators (p = 0.001) in which the Rungwe district registered relatively larger values than the Hai district. The paper underscores the need for the government and other development partners to support smallholder farmers so that they are enabled to produce high-value, and environmentally friendly avocados for the export market.