Do Agriculture and Infrastructure Development Improve Life Satisfaction? Evidence from Rural Tanzania

Abstract Rural development in Sub-Saharan Africa is mostly measured by economic indicators, despite growing calls to broaden this narrow focus. Although wellbeing is used in discourse, it often repackages economic goals rather than capturing people’s subjective wellbeing. We address this gap by analysing how and why agricultural intensification, commercialisation and infrastructure interventions affect life satisfaction, a central component of subjective wellbeing, among Tanzanian smallholder farmers within the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). Using longitudinal survey data from 2019 and 2023 ( N = 871) and focus groups, we show that life satisfaction has increased on average. Among the variables analysed in this study, access to electricity combined with Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) use is associated with higher life satisfaction. Despite development narratives, we do not find statistically significant evidence that agricultural intensification is associated with higher life satisfaction. Commercialisation is negatively associated with life satisfaction, which our qualitative findings link to perceived structural and market barriers. Infrastructure effects are heterogeneous and depend on household access: road improvements are associated with lower satisfaction among households without transport, while electricity is associated with higher satisfaction when used for ICT. These findings show that life satisfaction provides a valuable lens for understanding the intended and unintended impacts of development and can inform policies and practices by highlighting that these impacts are heterogeneous and vary across different groups.