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This article examines the reproduction of inequalities between actors and between territories in an African rural economy based on commercial food crops. It shows that mountain agriculture market integration sustain an extroverted rural economy. Dependence on, and asymmetric relations with the global market hinder accumulation and growth in the rural areas. The Uporoto Mountains in south-western Tanzania provide an example of underdevelopment mechanisms. Selling low value-added unprocessed products on external markets allows actors at the interface of urban and rural areas to capture the rent. The first part of the article presents an urban integrated agricultural model, and the second part, the uncertainties generated by access to a failing market.