Browsing by Author "Moh`d, Issa Salim"

The contribution of the agricultural sector to the development of Zanzibar Islands is considerable. This very important sector through clove industry was the economic backbone upon which the then government of Zanzibar relied for its foreign exchange and national revenue. However since the Arabs-ruled government was overthrown as a result of the so-called Zanzibar revolution in 1964, agricultural productivity particularly clove production has continually significantly decreased due to many problems and challenges, especially financial ones. A country that was a world leading exporter of the crop i.e. clove has now witnessed a drastic decrease for the last five decades. Several programmes, measures and policies on the other hand, have been adopted by various administrations to find solutions to the dwindling clove production but they have been fruitless. These solutions have mainly focused on alleviating the financial problems the farmers face. Normally financial intermediaries including banks, cooperatives and micro-enterprises would provide micro-financing to the farmers but with high interest rates along with collateral requirements. Thus, this mode of financing has produced no significant result. This study has therefore examined the problems facing the clove industry in Zanzibar with a special emphasis on the private sector participation and proposed a waqf-zakat-muzara’ah- supply chain model (WAMSCM). Under this model the waqf and zakat resources will be used for the human capital development (of) and provision of a piece of land (to) the farmers. There will be a relationship between farmers and financial institutions primarily based on a partnership where profit and loss are shared by both parties. This will enhance the commitment by and cooperation between both parties to ensure the success of the business. Furthermore, the issues of high interest rates and pledging of collateral that constrain the financial ability of the farmers and their agricultural output are integrally solved by this model. In addition to that, the model has the features of investment and risk diversification for both the private institutions and the farmers that will lead to high clove production and employment generation in the economy of the country. This study used a convenience sampling method to collect data from the sample (Pemba Island) whereby 263 questionnaires were collected representing 97.4% of the distributed questionnaires. The findings of this study are relevant to the current situation facing the clove industry in the isles and satisfactory to the extended proposed model of this study i.e. waqf-zakat-muzara’ah –supply chain model (WZMSCM). The study found that, clove industry in Zanzibar is currently facing enormous challenges namely; prices, monopoly, lack of funding, production cost factor, lack of involvement of private sectors, poverty of farmers, and lack of a viable model. Furthermore, the findings of this study are pleasing to tackle the problems facing the clove industry in Zanzibar. As such, the majority of the respondents agreed that this model will remedy the situation and improve the economic productivity of the crop.

The contribution of the agricultural sector, particularly the cloves, to the development of Zanzibar Islands is enormous. The government of Zanzibar relied on cloves for its national revenues, foreign exchange earnings and other development programs. However, since 1964, the clove production has continually declined significantly due to several challenges inherent in the existing models being employed in the sector. These challenges are: price fluctuation, high cost of production, lack of access to financing, minimal involvement of private sector in the industry, lack of logistics, monopoly of the crop (clove), and absence of an extended supply chain in the logistics and operations of the industry. Several programmes, measures and policies to remedy the situation were in vain. Evidences show the Waqf and Trust Commission (WTC) financing model in Zanzibar could be enhanced to overcome these inherent challenges. The present study has proposed waqf-muzara’ah- supply chain model (MSCM) to complement the WTC. Under this model (MSCM) the waqf resources and muzara’h financing are used for providing trainings and farming skills to farmers and financing farming equipment respectively based on a partnership contract where profit and loss are shared by both parties. The study has used mixed method (interview and survey) to validate the MSCM. The survey instrument was developed based on Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). The survey hypothesized that, the behavioural intention (willingness) of farmers to use the proposed model is positively affected by their attitude and negatively influenced by their subjective norm. The survey data were analysed using SPSS and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). While thematic analysis was used on the interviews data to generate the results. The findings from the interview show that the experts have strong opinion on the proposed model. Similarly, the results from the survey suggest that, individual beliefs of farmers (attitude) have positive influence and the perceived beliefs from their social pressure (subjective norm) have negative influence on their intention to use the proposed model. The findings in this study set a new direction for future research to extend the model in the agricultural sectors of other African and OIC member countries.