African Agriculture and Food Systems
The Irish potato is East Africa’s third most important food crop, after maize and bananas. Yet smallholder yields stagnate at 7–10 tonnes per hectare…
It began with a cardboard box, a Finnish potato enthusiast, and a small Tanzanian company knocking on cold doors in the Netherlands. A decade…
By Kilimokwanza Tanzania’s agricultural export performance has been one of the sector’s genuine success stories in recent years. The value of export crops nearly…
By Elizabeth Shumbusho Agriculture feeds Tanzania. And Tanzania’s youth — statistically — feed agriculture. Young people aged 15 to 35 make up 62.4 percent…
By Charles Mwangi Tanzania achieved food self-sufficiency in 2025. It is a milestone worth celebrating — the country now produces enough food to feed…
By Kilimokwanza Thirty-five grams. That is roughly a quarter of a small mango. Half an orange. Two modest slices of papaya. It is the…
By Kilimokwanza Tanzania has a mobile money success story that much of the world envies. Seven in ten adults use mobile money services. Financial…
There is a story we tell ourselves about hunger and body weight in Africa, and it goes roughly like this: poverty causes undernutrition, and…
By Elizabeth Shumbusho In 2010, Tanzania launched an ambitious experiment. The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania — SAGCOT — set out to bring…
By Kilimokwanza Mama Amina wakes before dawn to prepare breakfast for her family before the long walk to the shamba. She has never felt…
By Kilimokwanza There is a convenient assumption buried in conversations about vegetable production and nutrition in Africa: that more vegetables, grown by more farmers,…
By Kilimokwanza If Tanzania’s vegetable farming is dominated by a small number of crops, its fruit farming is dominated by a single one. The…
By Kilimokwanza Arusha and Kilimanjaro sit beside each other on the map, share a climate zone shaped by Mount Kilimanjaro, and are often grouped…
By Kilimokwanza Walk into a kitchen in Arusha or Kilimanjaro and you are likely to encounter African eggplant. Known locally as nyanya chungu, or…
By Kilimokwanza Amaranth, known in Kiswahili as mchicha, is one of the most nutritionally dense leafy vegetables grown in East Africa. Rich in iron,…
By Kilimokwanza On a typical vegetable farm in Arusha or Kilimanjaro, tomatoes occupy a special place. They are grown on nearly half the plot…
By Kilimokwanza Correspondent The question of why so few Tanzanians eat enough fruit and vegetables is often framed as a market problem, a behaviour…
KILIMOKWANZA SPECIAL SERIES: ON AGCOT • WHAT TRANSFORMATION ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE Eighteen portraits from Tanzania’s agricultural corridor • Batch 4: The AGCOT Leadership • …
Kilimokwanza.org 2026- R6 The history of Egerton University serves as a profound microcosm of the larger socio-economic and political shifts that characterized East Africa…
Trade Policy · Food Systems · Tourism The Food Tax Tourism Trap Are EU tariff rules turning East African food souvenirs into contraband —…
At the Njombe Regional Secretariat, 9 March 2026. AGCOT Board Chairman Dr Ally H. Laay and Board Member Laurean R. Bwanakunu join Regional Commissioner…
Kilimokwanza.org R7 The African digital narrative of the mid-2020s is dominated by a bipolar hegemony: the “Silicon Savannah” of Kenya and the “Yabacon Valley”…
Government opens three strategic planning tracks with February 2026 submission window Dar es Salaam – Tanzania’s National Planning Commission (NPC) has announced an extension…
Kilimokwanza.org 2026- R4 Tanzania is embarking on a landmark transformation of its agricultural sector, transitioning from a successful regional pilot to a comprehensive national…