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| Title: | Understanding the process of economic change: technology and opportunity in rural Tanzania |
| Author: | Green, Maia |
| Year: | 2013 |
| Pages: | 30 |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | REPOA special paper |
| City of publisher: | Dar es Salaam |
| Publisher: | REPOA |
| ISBN: | 9789987483204 |
| Geographic term: | Tanzania |
| Subjects: | technological change innovations |
| External link: | https://www.repoa.or.tz/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/REPOA%20SP%2013.1.pdf |
| Abstract: | This paper explores processes of economic change in rural Tanzania. It investigates some of the factors that have contributed to the adoption of innovations in economic practice in Ulanga District, Morogoro Region, since the 1990s. Understanding the factors which contribute to innovation is important for understanding how actual change occurs in rural areas. It also highlights important limitations in current policy models of change that are based on specific assumptions about economic behaviour and the impact of agricultural technologies. By focusing only on individual behaviour or the impact of technology, policy models of change fail to picture the multiple factors that generate change in particular settings. This paper is based on three months of field research carried out between February and August 2012. The research used a combination of ethnographic methods involving observation and informal discussions and semi-structured interviews with small farmers and district staff to gain an understanding of changes in economic practices in the district. The research involved visits to several locations, including the villages of Nawenge, Msogezi, Mbagula, Mdindo, Idunda, Mavimba, Minepa, Mwaya, and Chilombola. Findings from fieldwork were compared with the results of a similar study undertaken by the author in 1996 on economic and social change in the district.The research revealed significant changes in everyday economic practices and a willingness among small farmers to adopt new technologies. There were also important continuities in ways of managing livelihoods and household economies. Analysis of the factors leading to the adoption of improved dairy cattle, small-scale pig keeping, and participation in the savings and loan groups, which are relatively new to the area, demonstrates that productivity is not an inherent attribute of technologies or investments. It is generated by the economic and social relations in which these are embedded. Successful innovations are those that become integrated into daily practices and livelihood strategies. As these strategies change in relation to emerging economic opportunities, the viability of certain activities is transformed. Smart policy for rural economic growth must focus on increasing the opportunities available for rural populations. This cannot be achieved by promoting an economic monoculture of agrarian uniformity. Instead, it demands the careful nurturing of actual and emerging opportunities |