ARUSHA: Tanga Regional Commissioner Batilda Buriani has directed regional and district leaders in Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Manyara and Tanga to urgently identify and confirm suitable areas for productive farming, livestock keeping and fishing within the AGCOT Northern Corridor.
She issued the directive while opening the AGCOT Northern Corridor sensitisation workshop in Arusha, emphasizing that agricultural growth corridors are central to implementing Tanzania’s agricultural transformation agenda and accelerating commercial production.
The workshop brought together regional and council-level technical experts to build a shared understanding of the Agricultural Growth Corridors of Tanzania (AGCOT) framework, its corridor-based investment approach, and the responsibilities of stakeholders in driving implementation.
Commissioner Buriani underscored that the Northern Corridor—one of the three new expansion corridors under AGCOT alongside the Central and Mtwara Corridors—holds significant potential in crops, livestock and fisheries. She stressed the importance of modern, climate-resilient and market-driven agriculture, noting that the sector remains central to the country’s long-term economic ambitions under Vision 2050 due to its contribution to employment, GDP growth and foreign exchange earnings.
Speaking at the workshop, Agricultural Transformation Office (ATO) Director Elizabeth Missokia explained that the corridor approach integrates production, processing, storage, logistics and market access into a coordinated ecosystem. This integrated model is designed to unlock regional comparative advantages and drive Tanzania toward upper-middle-income status by 2050.
The AGCOT model builds on the success of the former Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), which has significantly transformed agricultural productivity in the Southern Highlands. Following a directive by Samia Suluhu Hassan in March 2023, the corridor approach was expanded nationwide under AGCOT to accelerate inclusive, climate-smart and investment-driven agricultural growth.
Under the AGCOT Northern Corridor, leaders are expected to fast-track mapping of high-potential clusters, enabling the development of corridor-specific investment blueprints, cluster compacts and commodity value chains that attract both public and private sector investment.
The sensitisation workshop marks a critical step in operationalising the Northern Corridor blueprint and aligning regional leadership with AGCOT’s mission of transforming smallholder farmers into viable agribusiness participants while strengthening national food security.