Abstract:
Poverty can be categorized into income poverty and non-income poverty. At the small scale Farmers level income poverty results From low productivity of agricultural
enterprises. hence low sales of products. On the other hand. non income poverty
encompasses a wide range of live phenomena, including level of education, poor
survival strategies, poor nutritional status. lack of clean and safe drinking water, poor
social well-being, vulnerability , etc. In 2000/01 about 62% of households in Tanzania
succumbed to income poverty. While the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) was
silent on research as one of the strategic approaches to reduce poverty in Tanzania, a
study was conducted between 2001 and 2004 by Sokoine University oj Agriculture
(SUA) in collaboration with the Agricultural Sector Lead Ministries (ASLMs) to evaluate
the effectiveness of on farm research and development (R&D) approaches in bringing
about poverty reduction amongst the smallholder farmers in the country. The study
was based on 27 projects under Tanzania Agricultural Research Project Phase II
(TARPII) managed by SUA (TARPII-SUA) conducted in the Eastern and Southern
Highlands Zones of country. By responding to a questionnaire. smallholder farmers
evaluated technologies introduced through research. Results have shown that
smallholder farmers' poverty could be significantly reduced by introducing
appropriate technologies. Thus. on average, participating farmers observed reductions
in income poverty by the period of this study. It is concluded that introduction of
technologies through on Farm research increases technology adoption and reduces
income poverty.
