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Poverty can be categorized into income poverty and non-income poverty. At the smallscale farmers level income poverty results from low productivity of agricultural enterprises. hence low sales of products. On the other hand, non income poverty encompasses a wide range of live phenomena, including level of education, poor survival strategies, poor nutritional status. lack of clean and safe drinking water, poor social wellbeing, vulnerability , etc. In 2000/01 about 62% of households in Tanzania succumbed to income poverty. While the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) was silent on research as one of the strategic approaches to reduce poverty in Tanzania, a study was conducted between 2001 and 2004 by Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) in collaboration with the Agricultural Sector Lead Ministries (ASLMs) to evaluate the effectiveness of onfarm research and development (R&D) approaches in bringing about poverty reduction amongst the smallholder farmers in the country. The study was based on 27 projects under Tanzania Agricultural Research Project Phase II (TARPII) managed by SUA (TARPII-SUA) conducted in the Eastern and Southern Highlands Zones of country. By responding to a questionnaire, smallholder farmers evaluated technologies introduced through research. Results have shown that smallholder farmers' poverty could be significantly reduced by inb'oducing appropriate technologies. Thus. on average, participating farmers observed reductions in income poverty by the period of this study. It is concluded that introduction of technologies through on-farm research increases technology adoption and reduces income poverty.Keywords: On-farm research, income poverty, poverty reduction, and technology transferTanzania J.Agric.Sc. (2007) Vol. 8 No.2, 103 -114

Improved technologies induce productivity growth that generates pro-poor improvement processes. However, improving welfare and equity is a difficult task. This study investigated whether interventions in agriculturebenefit farmers who are more capable to derive sufficient gains than others using data from on-farm research projects in Tanzania.Data were collected during baseline and impact assessment studies using questionnaires. The distributions of income were assessed using coefficients of variation, Gini coefficients and Theil’s Tstatistic. Results show that the projects contributed to increase farm income through enhanced productivity and sales of products and these gains were equitably shared. To encourage adoption and sustainability of these interventions it is important to sensitize Local Government Authorities and Agricultural Sector Lead Ministries on these technologies to allow incorporation of research findings in development plans. Involvement of extension staff in research and demonstrations through farmers’ shows should also be encouraged to increase adoption.Key words: Agricultural research, Agricultural productivity; poverty and income inequality.