Rural poverty continues to be one of the most trenchant development problems in Tanzania, and yet no comprehensive solution has been found. In this paper it is argued that without a fundamental understanding of the agrarian question, any attempt to derive meaningful conclusions on rural development is doomed to be incomprehensive and incomplete. The paper traces back the roots of this important scholarly exchange of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, as well as summarising the resulting debate mainly between the neo-populist school and Marxian political economy. It then goes on to outline how this original understanding of the agrarian question extended to and influenced the contemporary rural development discourse, which however widely misrepresented the original contributions and created an illustrious array of antagonistic and inconclusive approaches that culminated in the recent World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for development. This theoretical discussion is framed and exemplified by the case of rural development, labour market participation and poverty in the West Usambara Mountains, Tanzania. Primary survey data collected by the author in 2008 is employed to analyse the current state of the farmers, their engagement in labour markets as well as ongoing processes of class differentiation. Returning to the initial debate, an attempt to link these current realities with the overall outlook for Tanzanian development is provided.

Drawing on four years of fieldwork in Ethiopia and Uganda, this paper addresses gaps in knowledge about the mechanisms linking agricultural exports with poverty reduction, the functioning of rural labour markets, and the relevance to the lives of the poorest people of Fairtrade. Statistical analysis of survey evidence, complemented by qualitative research, highlights the relatively poor payment and non--pay working conditions of those employed in research sites dominated by Fairtrade producer organizations. We conclude that Fairtrade is not an effective way to improve the welfare of the poorest rural people.

The Fair Trade, Employment and Poverty Reduction (FTEPR) project investigated poverty dynamics in rural Ethiopia and Uganda. When designing fieldwork to capture poor people often missing from standard surveys, several methodological challenges were identified and, in response, four decisions were made. First, FTEPR focused on wage workers rather than farmers and improved on standard questionnaires when collecting labour market information. Second, researchers adopted contrastive venue-based sampling. Third, sampling was based on clearly identifiable "residential units" rather than unreliable official registers of "households". Fourth, an economic definition of "household" was used rather than the more common definition based on residential criteria. RÉSUMÉ Le projet Fair Trade, Employment and Poverty Reduction (FTEPR), qui portait sur la dynamique de la pauvreté dans les régions rurales d'Éthiopie et d'Uganda, a dû relever plusieurs défis pour rejoindre les personnes pauvres échappant aux enquêtes standardisées. Quatre décisions ont été prises à cet égard. Premièrement, le projet a mis l'accent sur les travailleurs salariés plutôt que sur les agriculteurs et il a amélioré les questionnaires habituellement utilisés pour récolter de l'information sur les marchés du travail. Deuxièmement, il a adopté un plan d'échantillonnage raisonné des lieux d'enquête. Troisièmement, l'échantillonnage s'est basé sur des unités résidentielles facilement identifiables plutôt que sur les registres officiels des ménages qui sont peu fiables. Enfin, les ménages ont été définis en termes économiques plutôt qu'en fonction du lieu d'habitation.