Electricity access and Rural household productivity: Evidence from Tanzania

Abstract

Access to electricity is essential for soci-economic change or transformation of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) economies and plays crucial role in enhancing the economic capacities of communities to achieve faster and more sustainable development progress and ensure equitable provision of electricity to both the urban and rural areas in Africa. Evidences show that sub-Saharan countries have embarked recently on electrification and rural electrification programs to provide and provide and improve on the access to electricity to enhance the household productivity, employment opportunities and improve the way of life in Africa. This investigates the effect of electricity access on the rural household productivity in Tanzania using the household and individual information from the LSMS-ISA of Tanzania national data survey panel. The study shows that electricity access increases the labor productivity and the wage of hired workers on the farm for the rural household. We also observe a decrease in the farm output of the household with access to electricity this implies the household uses electricity not for agricultural activities. The results also indicate that electricity accessibility significantly increases level of crop produce such as rice, maize and beans on the farm for the rural household with electricity. The results further show that electricity access significantly reduces the days spent on the farm by members of the household and associated with increase in total days spent on the farm by hired labor of households with access to electricity.