The interdependence between agriculture and industry sectors has increased in developing countries where smallholder farmers dominate agricultural production.
However, methodology for assessing the contribution of smallholder farmers to the industrialization is lacking. The current paper presents the developed crop-industry relevance index (CIRI) framework used to analyze crop production and gauge the contribution of smallholder farming in industrial development in Tanzania. The study employed the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) to derive weights for constructing the CIRI. The study defined five criteria that represents characteristics of crop types defining the crop industry relevance. The pairwise matrix representing value judgement on the contribution of different crop types to the industrialization were established. The normalization procedure resulted to derivation of weights. Consistency analysis performed to check the consistency in the value judgement on role of different crop types on industrialization. The results are that, the consistency ratio was 0.0318 implying robust weight values. Finding are that, the contribution of smallholder farmers to the production of industrial relevant crops is estimated to be 20% in year 2014. The estimated
industrial value is mainly contributed by maize, paddy, cassava, cotton, sugarcane and sunflower. The implication is that while maize, cassava and paddy are produced primarily for food, there is emerging importance in the industrial development. Effort to enhance crop production focusing these crops beers dual benefits in the country.
