This paper explores whether farm land and non-land assets determine the participation of tomato growers in modern markets in Nicaragua, and how farmers’ duration as supermarket suppliers affects the farm technology they use. The methodology is based on a survival analysis approach. We use data from a stratified random sample of tomato farmers in Nicaragua over a 10-year period. Our results show that participation in supermarket supply chains as supermarket supplier is not determined by farm size, contrary to a common hypothesis, and thus small farmers can be supermarket suppliers. However, non-land assets are important determinants of being in the modern channel: these assets include irrigation, nonfarm assets (linked to nonfarm employment) and education. Duration as a supermarket supplier is positively correlated with farm asset accumulation and the use of modern technology (mainly in the form of capital-led intensification) of tomato farming – but negatively correlated with the share of highly toxic pesticides in overall pesticide use.