Ecodevelopment in Tanzania: an empirical contribution on needs, self-sufficiency, and environmentally-sound agriculture on peasant farms

The local and economic feasibility of applying ecological production patterns in tropical African highlands is analysed by using peasant's crop and farm budgets as a basis. It investigates risk minimizing, that is, raising cash crop. The most important cash crops are vegetables, coffee and tea. The most important subsistence crops are maize, bean, banana, sweet potato and cassava. The case study (Shashui area in Lushoto distric, Tanga region, Tanzania) is linked to general ecodevelopment theory and policy. The goal of the study is to ascertain the social and economic conditions governing the introduction of ecologically-oriented agricultural production and to evaluate how useful this would be. (ATA 12(7):59277. 1987)