From millet to tomatoes: incremental intensification with high-value crops in contemporary Meru, Tanzania

Abstract

In Meru, Tanzania, changing land/labour ratios have, for over a century, been the main driving force in a farm intensification process. The construction and expansion of irrigation systems, increased use of farm inputs and transfer from low- to high-value agricultural crops have enabled smallholders to improve their land productivity. Technological change has been accompanied by institutional change, primarily in the form of changes to property right regimes and expanding markets. In the past few decades, increasing urban and rural demand has further enhanced smallholders' production strategies. By applying the induced innovation theory, this article captures and analyses the long-term incremental processes of change whereby endogenous technological and institutional innovations have led to farm intensification in the contemporary local system of agricultural smallholder production. Further, it shows how this process has been reinforced by improved access to market opportunities.