Abstract
This paper explores the variety of factors which influence Iraqw fanners' land-use strategies in northern Tanzania. Based on archival research, oral history, and detailed field research, this study illustrates the ways in which access to and availability of resources through social networks and markets over time are critical to farmers' decisions about how to use their labor and land. This detailed local study of agrarian change examines how wider, regional processes of change affect local conditions. It demonstrates that population growth neither results automatically in intensification nor in degradation of the resource base. The paper also attempts to explore how ideas about farming and “progress” shape farmers' decisions about land use.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arnold, J. E. M. (1995). Retrospect and prospect. In Arnold, J. E. M., and Dewees, P. A. (eds.),Tree Management in Farmer Strategies: Responses to Agricultural Intensification. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 271–287.
Barlett, P. F. (1982)Agricultural Choice and Decision Making in a Costa Rican Community. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick, NJ.
Bernstein, H. (1982). Notes on capital and peasantry. In Harriss, J. (ed.),Rural Development: Theories of Peasant Economy and Agrarian Change. Longman, London, pp. 160–177.
Berry, S. (1989). Social institutions and access to resources.Africa 59(1): 41–55.
Berry, S. (1993).No Condition Is Permanent: The Social Dynamics of Agrarian Change in Sub-Saharan Africa. The University of Wisconsin Press, Madison.
Blaikie, P. (1989). Environment and access to resources in Africa.Africa 59(1): 18–39.
Blaikie, P., and Brookfield, H. (1987).Land Degradation and Society. Metheun, London.
Boserup, E. (1965).The Conditions of Agricultural Growth: The Economics of Agrarian Change Under Population Pressure. Aldine, Chicago.
Brown, L.,et al. (1990).State of the World 1990. W.W. Norton, New York.
Burn, A. J., Coaker, T. H., and Jepson, P. C. (1987).Integrated Pest Management. Academic Press, London.
Campbell, D. C., and Riddell, J. C. (1984). Social and economic change and the intensity of land use in the Mandara Mountains region of North Cameroon.Tijdschift vor Economishe en Sociale Geographie 75(5): 335–343.
Conelly, W. T. (1994). Population pressure, labor availability, and agricultural disintensification: The decline of farming on Rusinga Island, Kenya.Human Ecology 22(2): 145–170.
Dewees, P. A. (1991). Woodlots, Labour Use and Farming Systems in Kenya. Paper presented at an International Workshop on “Socio-economic Aspects of Treegrowing by Farmers” held at the Institute of Rural Management, Anand, India, March 11–14.
Dewees, P. A. (1993).Trees, Land and Labour. The World Bank, Washington, D.C.
Eckholm, E. (1976).Losing Ground: Environmental Stress and World Food Prospects. W.W. Norton, New York.
Fosbrooke, H. (1955).The Mbulu Highlands: Problems of People, Land and Cattle. Unpublished manuscript
Guyer, J., and Lambin, E. F. (1993). Land use in an urban hinterland: Ethnography and remote sensing in the study of African intensification.American Anthropologist 95(4): 839–859.
Haugerud, A. (1989). Land tenure and agrarian change in Kenya.Africa 59(1): 61–90.
Iliffe, J. (1979).A Modern History of Tanganyika. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Johansson, L. (1991). Successful Tree Growers: Why People Grow Trees in Babati District, Tanzania. Working Paper 155, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala.
Kjekshus, H. (1977).Ecology Control and Economic Development in East African History. University of California Press, Berkeley.
Mbulu District Council, Agriculture and Livestock Department (1993). Mbulu District's Land and Water Management Programme: Review of Activities and Proposals for Intensification.
Meadows, D. H., Meadows, D. L., and Anders, J. (1972).The Limits to Growth. Earth Island, London.
Netting, R. M. (1993).Smallholders, Householders: Farm Families and the Ecology of Intensive Sustainable Agriculture. Stanford University Press, Stanford.
Netting, R. M., Stone, M. P., and Stone, G. D. (1989). Kofyar cash-cropping: Choice and change in indigenous agricultural development.Human Ecology 17: 299–319.
Raikes, P. (1975). The Development of Mechanized Commercial Wheat Production in North Iraqw. PhD dissertation, Stanford University.
Richards, P. (1983). Ecological change and politics in African land use.African Studies Review 26(2): 1–72.
Riddell, J. C., and Campbell, D. J. (1986). Agricultural intensification and rural development: The Mandara Mountains of North Cameroon.African Studies Review, 29(3): 89–106.
Ruthenberg, H. (1980).Farming Systems in the Tropics. Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Shepherd, K. D., Ohlsson, E., Okalebo, J. R., and Ndufa, J. K. (in press). Potential impact of agroforestry on soil nutrient balances at the farm scale in the East Africa Highlands.Fertilizer Research.
Shipton, P. (1990). African famines and food security: Anthropological perspectives.Annual Review of Anthropology 19: 353–394.
Shipton, P. (1994). Land and culture in tropical Africa.Annual Review of Anthropology 35: 317–324.
Stone, G. D. (1994). Agricultural intensification and perimetrics: Ethnoarchaeological evidence from Nigeria.Current Anthropology 35(3): 317–324.
Stone, G. D., Netting, R. M., and Stone, M. P. (1990). Seasonalty, labor scheduling, and agricultural intensification in the Nigerian savanna.American Anthropologist 92: 7–23.
Talle, A. (1990). Land and Tree Tenure in Babati District, Tanzania: An Anthropological Perspective. Working Paper 194, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala.
The United Republic of Tanzania (1994). Report of the Presidential Commission of Inquiry into Land Matters. Volume 1: Land Policy and Land Tenure Structure. Government of Tanzania, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
Thorton, R. (1980).Space, Time and Culture Among the Iraqw of Tanzania. Academic Press, New York.
Turner, B. L., Hyden, G., and Kates, R. W. (1993).Population Growth and Agricultural Change in Africa, University Press of Florida, Gainesville.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Snyder, K.A. Agrarian change and land-use strategies among Iraqw farmers in northern Tanzania. Hum Ecol 24, 315–340 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02169393
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02169393