Awareness, perceptions and factors affecting purchase decisions of solar dried vegetables in rural Tanzania

This paper analyzes rural households awareness, perceptions and factors influencing decisions to purchase solar dried vegetables. Solar dried vegetables have higher nutritive value and hygiene than open sun dried vegetables. Findings show that about 36 percent of the rural households are aware of solar dried vegetables. Decision to purchase solar dried vegetables were influenced by female household head, income level, experience in the consumption of dried vegetables and awareness of the importance of solar dried vegetables. Thus, awareness creation and promoting solar driers to dry vegetables is suggested as an effective way to continuously access nutritious vegetables, particularly among households faced with frequent droughts. Acknowledgement : We acknowledge the financial support from the Bureau for Food Security, (USAID), under the terms of Award No. AID-BFS-IO-12-00004. The opinions expressed in this paper are entirely those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the USAID. We thank the district authorities in the study area and all those who were involved in data collection. We also appreciate core donors to the World Vegetable Center: Republic of China (Taiwan), UK Department for International Development (DFID), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Germany, Thailand, Philippines, Korea, and Japan.