Economic analysis of alternative sources of energy for tobacco curing in tabora urban district, tabora region.

ABSTRACT

The growth of tobacco production in Tanzania has become a threat to the woodlands due to the amount of firewood used for curing the crop. The overall objective of the research was to assess the economic feasibility of substituting firewood with sawdust and/or rice husks in curing tobacco. The specific objectives were to: (1) determine calorific values of sawdust briquettes, rice husk briquettes and firewood, (2) examine quality of tobacco cured by sawdust briquettes, rice husk briquettes and firewood, (3) compare curing costs for the three biomass. A Bomb Calorimeter was used to determine the calorific values of all energy sources. The grade indices were determined by dividing the value of tobacco in each harvest/reaping per hectare to the weight of dry tobacco per hectare. The grade indices produced by each biomass was compared by using t-test to see if they were statistically different. The curing costs were compared by using t-test to see if they were statistically different. The results indicated that there was no significant difference at p>0.05 between the quality of tobacco cured by sawdust briquettes and that which was cured by firewood. There was significant difference in curing costs at p