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Agriculture and poverty in commodity dependent African countries: a rural household perspective from the United Republic of Tanzania by Alexander Sarris, Sara Savastano and Luc Christiaensen. Commodities and Trade Technical Paper No. 9.

This report explores how farm productivity affects poverty, and how various factor market constraints affect farm productivity. The empirical analysis draws on representative surveys of farm households in Kilimanjaro and Ruvuma, two cash crop growing regions in Tanzania. Poorer households were found not only to possess fewer assets, but also to be much less productive. Findings show that agricultural productivity directly affects household consumption and hence overall poverty and welfare. Stochastic production frontier analysis indicates that many farmers are farming well below best practice in the region. Holding inputs constant, they attain on average only 60 percent of the output obtained by their best counterparts.