DS 102: Development perspectives II take home assignment

INTRODUCTION:

Agrarian reform refers to redistribution of the agricultural resources of a country.

Traditionally, agrarian, or land, reform is confined to the redistribution of land; in a
broader sense it includes related changes in agricultural institutions, including
credit, taxation, rents, and cooperatives. Although agrarian reform can result in
lower agricultural productivity, especially if it includes collectivization, it may
increase productivity when land is redistributed to the tiller. Pressure for modern
land reform is most powerful in the underdeveloped nations. Agrarian Revolution
refers to a change in farming methods that allowed for a greater production of food.
This revolution was fueled by the use of new farming technology such as the seed
drill and improved fertilizers. The result of this revolution was a population
explosion due to the higher availability of food. It was one of the causes of the
Industrial Revolution. Poverty refers to the condition of not having the means to
afford the basic human needs such as clean water, nutrition, health care,
education, clothing and shelter. This is also referred to as absolute poverty or
destitution. Relative poverty is the condition of having fewer resources or less
income than others within a society or country, or compared to worldwide
averages. Hunger can be defined as intensive lack of food which may result to
death or malnutrition. Agriculture refers to crop production, livestock keeping,
fishing and forestry. Rural Development refers to a process of all the changes
geared towards improving the well being of the rural community in a country.

Agrarian reform in Tanzania

According to Mlambiti, M.E (1994) Agrarian reform involves changes covering the
whole agricultural sector as well as all the sectors that affect the sector’s
development and its linkages to the other sectors of the economy. It therefore
deals with changes within the sector and its relation to others in the economy as a
whole.

In its attempt to try to develop the agricultural sector and hence the economy of the
country, government of Tanzania both before and after independence tried
different agrarian reforms. Several village settlement schemes were established
under the village settlement agent (VSA). Settlement established soon after
independent aimed on making effective use of idle labor found in towns. The
village settlement schemes unfortunately were not successful for several reasons
among them were heavy capitalization, poor administration, social imbalance with
regard to men women ratio and poor planning.

1
Mlambiti, M. E. (1994). Introduction to rural economy for east African students.
2
FAO (1953). Inter-relationship between agrarian reform and agricultural development.
3
http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Agrarian+reforms
4
Tulahi C. R. and Perpetua M. Hingi (2006). Agrarian reform and rural development in Tanzania. A
Country Paper Presented by at the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural
Development,

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 DS 102: Development perspectives II take home assignment

Tanzania got its independence in 1961. Six years later it took a unique path of
development intended to build a self-sufficient nation with the objective of fulfilling
basic human needs of its people as a priority. Nyerere saw this could only be
achieved through rural development based on communal farming and democratic
input of peasants and workers in the country’s political and economic planning.

Through the Arusha declaration of 1967, the government initiated the

establishment of a new agrarian reform the Ujamaa villagization scheme which is
based on the fact that Africans traditionally have a communal ownership attitude
i.e. they operate communally and share the products of their efforts also Nyerere
had four goals he wanted to achieve. These are Egalitarian distribution, Self-
sufficient, Democracy and Satisfaction of the basic needs.

As part of the implementation of the Arusha declaration, a programme known as

villagezation was initiated in 1973 which had several strengths such as about 55%
of the population was resettled into organized villages and Land uses in those
villages were a mix between individual and communal or block farming also
resettlement schemes were initiated in a quest to improve provision of economic
and social services to the majority of the people.

Despite the good intentions, the villagisation programme, coupled with limited
resources, created uncertainty on land tenure as there was fear of possible
relocation. This reduced investments and conservation of land. Moreover, as time
went by, several other problems surfaced. These include high demand for grazing
land, environmental concerns as a result of land degradation, increase in conflicts
between crop farmers and livestock keepers, development of land market which
created fears of land grabbing by rich people at the expense of the poor and the
likely subsequent conflicts. The Government saw a need to control land
transactions, Women concerns about skewed land ownership in favour of men,
concerns by investors and financial institutions over the need to have land as
collateral, development and expansion of urban areas which necessitated creation
of a framework for access to land and its subsequent use, population pressure
which created land conflict in some areas and therefore called for a policy and
legal framework to guide acquisition and use of land.

1
Mlambiti, M. E. (1994). Introduction to rural economy for east African students.
2
Mbiligenda, S.K (unknown publ.Date). Agrarian transformation and rural
development,
3
Paige, J. M (1975). Agrarian revolution: Social movements and export
agriculture in the underdeveloped world,

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 DS 102: Development perspectives II take home assignment

Agriculture is the pivot of Tanzanian economy. More than 80% of Tanzanian

population depends on agriculture for their livelihood. Agriculture contributes 46%
to the Country’s GDP and about 60% of foreign exchange. The industrial sector
also to a large extent depends on agriculture for its raw materials. Tanzania has 44
million hectares of land suitable for crop production out of which only 10.8 million
hectares are under cultivation. The Country also has about 60 million hectares of
land suitable for livestock keeping. Generally, there is ample land suitable for crop
and animal production which is not or is under utilized.

To improve the link between agriculture and rural development, hence poverty
alleviation the following is to be done: Improve social services like water, hospital
etc, improve the infrastructures such road which is very important in transportation
of agricultural goods, introduce irrigation schemes, use of manure to conserve soil
fertility, to strengthens the environmental conservation programmes by putting an
emphasis on planting trees and avoiding any activity which may result into
deforestation, agrarian reform is a complicated process which needs a thorough
understanding of the problems at hand and identification of the crucial factors
which may have significant impact on its success if properly implemented, use of
modern science and technology to improve agricultural activities (Agriculture
mechanization) is very important, National land policies and land tenure systems
that are adopted by the country are the prime determinants of success or failure of
the planned agrarian reforms. Thus, clear properly thought of and implemented
government land and tenure policies are a prerequisite of a successfully planned
reform, agrarian reform and agrarian institutional reforms should be closely
balanced so that changes made on the agrarian institutions should not underline
the success of the intended agrarian reform, agrarian reform should be carried out
within the limits of existing national resources in all aspects. Resources from donor
agencies should only be facilitating and not otherwise, agrarian reform should be
based on the main burning issues of the target group i.e. the affected majority.
Tanzania has begun to aggressively promote medium and large scale commercial
farming. Plans are underway to mobilize resources for irrigation development and
mechanical farming. This move will inevitably affect land ownership,
environmental management and rural development initiatives. Given the size and
importance of the agricultural sector in the Tanzanian economic and social
development initiatives, this sector will continue to drive all agrarian and rural
development strategies. Putting emphasis on the suggested solution above will
successful improve the agriculture and rural development hence the millennium
development goal on poverty reduction will be reached.

1
Mlambiti, M. E. (1994). Introduction to rural economy for east African students.
2
Mbiligenda, S.K (unknown publ.Date). Agrarian transformation and rural
development,
3
Tulahi C. R. and Perpetua M. Hingi (2006). Agrarian reform and rural
development in Tanzania.

Tandika Zabron W. Reg # 1270/T. 2009

 DS 102: Development perspectives II take home assignment

References:
1. Paige, J. M (1975). Agrarian revolution: Social movements and export
agriculture in the underdeveloped world, The free press
A division of Macmillan publishing co.inc. London.
2. FAO (2002). Gender and access to land. FAO, Rome
3. Griffin, Keith (1974). The political economy of Agrarian change. An essay of
the green revolution. The Macmillan press ltd. London
4. Mkina, Simon (unknown Publ. Year). Agricultural revolution, a politicized
campaign in Tanzania. DSM
5. http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Agrarian+reforms)

6. FAO (1992). Land reform and structural adjustment in sub-Saharan Africa:

controversies and guideline, FAO.

7. FAO (1966). Evaluation of Agrarian structures and Agrarian reform

Programs, FAO

8. FAO (1984). Studies on Agrarian reform and rural poverty, FAO.

9. Brian, Libery (ed) (1997). Agricultural restructuring and sustainability: a
geographical perspective. CABI International,
London.

10. Tulahi C. R. and Perpetua M. Hingi (2006). Agrarian reform and rural
development in Tanzania. A Country Paper Presented
by at the International Conference on Agrarian Reform
and Rural Development, Porto Alegre, Brazil, 7-10
March, 2006
11. Mbiligenda, S.K (unknown publ.Date). Agrarian transformation and rural
development, institute of development studies IDS University
of Dar es salaam.
12. Mlambiti, M. E. (1994). Introduction to rural economy for east African
students, Mzumbe book project, Morogoro.
13. FAO (1953). Inter-relationship between agrarian reform and agricultural
development, FAO, Rome Italy.

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 DS 102: Development perspectives II take home assignment

ARDHI UNIVERSITY

SCHOOL OF GEOSPATIAL SCIENCES AND

TECHNOLOGY

DEPARTMENT OF GEOMATICS

DS 102: DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVES

TAKE HOME ASSIGNMENT

TANDIKA ZABRON W.

REG # 1270/T.2009

BSc. IN INFORMATION SYSTEMS MANAGEMENT

(BSc. ISM)

Question:
“Access to land, its ownership and management are vital to achieving the millennium
goals for eradicating poverty, hunger, achieving gender equality and environmental
conservation”. To discuss the strengths and weaknesses of the implementation of
agrarian revolution of 1967 in Tanzania and to suggest what has to done by the country
in order to improve the link between agriculture and rural development hence poverty
alleviation.

Tandika Zabron W. Reg # 1270/T. 2009