Smallholder farming in Kagera region, Tanzania: constraints to coffee production

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Periodical article

Title:	Smallholder farming in Kagera region, Tanzania: constraints to coffee production
Author:	Smith, C.D.
Year:	1987
Periodical:	Labour, Capital and Society
Volume:	20
Issue:	2
Pages:	206-226
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Tanzania
Subjects:	small farms coffee
Abstract:	In the decade 1974-1983 coffee exports accounted for 28 percent of Tanzania's foreign exchange earnings; Kagera region produced 40.5 percent of the nation's coffee during this period. This article assesses why the Haya farmers in Kagera are harvesting less coffee than they could at maximum output. On the basis of a study of Bushagara village it reviews six reasons for the stagnation of coffee production: 1) land shortage and out-migration; 2) the gender structure (thirty percent of households are female-headed, and these have virtually no land on which to grow coffee); 3) alternative uses of capital (brewing and distilling); 4) the village class structure (the richest fifteen percent of farmers were virtually the only ones who were increasing their coffee production because of their greater access to land, labour and modern inputs); 5) low producer prices; and 6) the high prices and scarcity of incentive consumer goods. A strategy based on incentives for coffee production is a viable option for a specific target group, but longer-term strategies must deal with structural constraints. Notes, ref., sum. in French.