Tracing Improving Livelihoods in Rural Africa Using Local Measures of Wealth: A Case Study from Central Tanzania, 1991-2016
Tracing Improving Livelihoods in Rural Africa Using Local Measures of Wealth: A Case Study from Central Tanzania, 1991-2016
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DOI：
10.3390/land7020044
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发表时间：
2018-06-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.9
通讯作者：
Brockington, Dan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Ostberg, Wilhelm;Howland, Olivia;Brockington, Dan
我们研究了坦桑尼亚中部两个村庄25年来的生计变化和贫困动态。从20世纪90年代初到21世纪初，那些村庄非常贫穷，50%到55%的家庭属于最贫穷的财富群体。25年后，情况发生了很大变化：人们变得更加富有，64%和71%的人属于中等财富群体。新的财富来自当地的农业，特别是作为经济作物的向日葵。这与坦桑尼亚小规模农业停滞不前或生产力低下的传统观点背道而驰。每个家庭的耕地面积增加了，有一个村庄几乎翻了一番。人们赚了钱，他们投资于机械化农业，改善住房，子女教育，牲畜和消费品。基础设施的改善和当地企业家在该地区的转型中发挥了关键作用。当地确定的财富排名显示，大多数村民，即中等财富群体及以上的村民，现在可以从他们的土地上养活自己，这是一个显着的变化，当时每个村庄分别有71%和82%的人依靠临时工生存。这种变化是以环境为代价的。到2016年，村里的森林大部分消失了，取而代之的是农场。农民们担心，由于森林砍伐，气候正在变得更加干燥。通过研究人类的日常生活，屋顶的材料，农场的规模等等，我们有可能追溯和理解这个地区所经历的根本性转变。
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 By 2016, the village forests have largely gone and been replaced by farms.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 mundanethe 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.