%O This research was part of the projects Increasing Irrigation Water Productivity in Mozambique,
Tanzania and Zimbabwe through On-Farm Monitoring, Adaptive Management and Agricultural
Innovation Platforms (FSC-2013-006) and Transforming Smallholder Irrigation into Profitable and
Self-Sustaining Systems in Southern Africa (LWR/2016/137), both funded by the Australian Centre
for International Agricultural Research and participating organizations. It was also partly supported
by the Australian Research Council (FT140100773). The authors are grateful to constructive comments
received by two reviewers.
%K Inequality, Economic growth, Agricultural development, Irrigation, Sub-Saharan Africa
%A A Manero
%A H Bjornlund
%A S Wheeler
%A A Zuo
%A M Mdemu
%A A Van Rooyen
%A M Chilundo
%I Routledge
%V 36
%L icrisat11655
%J International Journal of Water Resources Development (TSI)
%N sup1
%P S224-S245
%R doi:10.1080/07900627.2020.1811959
%D 2020
%X The mechanisms linking growth and inequality are critical for poverty reduction, yet they remain poorly understood at the micro level, as current knowledge is dominated by country-wide studies. This article
evaluates farm income growth and changes in inequality among five smallholder irrigation communities in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe. Over the period of study, the poorest sections of the population became better-off. Over an income growth spell, at low levels of growth, relative inequality increases, but it starts to drop as
growth rises beyond a certain rate. Thus, careful design is required to ensure that pro-growth strategies also become inequality-reducing.
%T Growth and inequality at the micro scale: an empirical analysis of farm incomes within smallholder irrigation systems in Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Mozambique