The Southern Highlands are the most important grain-producing area of Tanzania. This paper outlines the forces that have determined farming patterns in the area, which is farmed predominantly by smallholders. A major determinant has been state policies, which are described from a historical perspective. With the help of data from the 1989 to 1991 monitoring exercises of the Agricultural Support Programme, the paper describes smallholder farm enterprise combinations and production practices.
It is noted that through gradual improvement rather than transformation of farm families, considerable advances have been made in the utilization of technologies developed by research, and in particular by Uyole Agricultural Centre (UAC).
It is also noted, however, that there are still constraints to more efficient production which need to be addressed.
The paper underlines the need for research to put more emphasis on the identification and development of means of removing these production constraints, and the need for training and extension to step up the dissemination of research findings.
