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Wilhelm Östberg
Department of Human Geography, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden

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Journal article
Published: 10 April 2018 in Land
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We studied livelihood changes and poverty dynamics over a 25-year period in two villages in central Tanzania. The villages were, from the early 1990s and 2000s, strikingly poor with between 50% and 55% of families in the poorest wealth groups. 25 years later much has changed: people have become substantially wealthier, with 64% and 71% in the middle wealth groups. The new wealth had been generated locally, from farming, particularly of sunflowers as a cash crop. This goes against a conventional view of small-scale farming in Tanzania as being stagnant or unproductive. The area of land farmed per family has increased, almost doubling in one village. People have made money, which they invest in mechanised farming, improved housing, education of their children, livestock, and consumer goods. Improved infrastructure and local entrepreneurs have played key roles in the area’s transformation. Locally identified wealth rankings showed that most villagers, those in the middle wealth groups and above, can now support themselves from their land, which is a notable change to a time when 71% and 82% in each village respectively depended on casual labour for their survival. This change has come at a cost to the environment. By 2016, the village forests have largely gone and been replaced by farms. Farmers were concerned that the climate was turning drier because of deforestation. Studying the mundane—the material used in roofs, the size of farms, and so on made it possible to trace and understand the radical transition the area has experienced.

ACS Style

Wilhelm Östberg; Olivia Howland; Joseph Mduma; Dan Brockington. Tracing Improving Livelihoods in Rural Africa Using Local Measures of Wealth: A Case Study from Central Tanzania, 1991–2016. Land 2018, 7, 44 .

AMA Style

Wilhelm Östberg, Olivia Howland, Joseph Mduma, Dan Brockington. Tracing Improving Livelihoods in Rural Africa Using Local Measures of Wealth: A Case Study from Central Tanzania, 1991–2016. Land. 2018; 7 (2):44.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Wilhelm Östberg; Olivia Howland; Joseph Mduma; Dan Brockington. 2018. "Tracing Improving Livelihoods in Rural Africa Using Local Measures of Wealth: A Case Study from Central Tanzania, 1991–2016." Land 7, no. 2: 44.

General articles
Published: 15 February 2017 in African Studies
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This article examines changes during the last 40 years in a smallholder irrigation-farming community in Elgeyo-Marakwet County, Kenya. Agricultural productivity has increased thanks to improved seeds and the practice of adding manure and crop residues to fields, a very rare occurrence in the 1970s. People’s range of assets, housing conditions and communications have also improved. Development agencies have had limited impact on these developments, particularly in comparison with their ambitious plans for a radical transformation of the study area. Increased yields and improved living conditions are attributed to local initiatives rather than to external interventions.

ACS Style

Wilhelm Östberg; Martina Angela Caretta. Kerio Valley, 1973–2013: A case study of Kenyan smallholder agriculture. African Studies 2017, 76, 402 -422.

AMA Style

Wilhelm Östberg, Martina Angela Caretta. Kerio Valley, 1973–2013: A case study of Kenyan smallholder agriculture. African Studies. 2017; 76 (3):402-422.

Chicago/Turabian Style

Wilhelm Östberg; Martina Angela Caretta. 2017. "Kerio Valley, 1973–2013: A case study of Kenyan smallholder agriculture." African Studies 76, no. 3: 402-422.