African Agriculture and Food Systems
It began with a cardboard box, a Finnish potato enthusiast, and a small Tanzanian company knocking on cold doors in the Netherlands. A decade on, Tanzanian avocados are the backbone of India’s fastest-growing fresh-fruit import trade. This is the story of how a corridor, three institutions and a generation of smallholder farmers built an empire […]
By Elizabeth Shumbusho In 2010, Tanzania launched an ambitious experiment. The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania — SAGCOT — set out to bring government, business, development partners, and smallholder farmers together around a shared vision for one of the country’s most productive agricultural zones. Fifteen years later, the results are significant. The SAGCOT Corridor […]
KILIMOKWANZA SPECIAL SERIES: ON AGCOT • WHAT TRANSFORMATION ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE Eighteen portraits from Tanzania’s agricultural corridor • Batch 4: The AGCOT Leadership • kilimokwanza.org The Board Chairman Who Walked the Fields First Dr. Ally Hussein Laay has chaired the AGCOT Centre board since 2018 – through a pandemic, an institutional rebrand, a USD 6.34 […]
At the Njombe Regional Secretariat, 9 March 2026. AGCOT Board Chairman Dr Ally H. Laay and Board Member Laurean R. Bwanakunu join Regional Commissioner Hon. Anthony Mtaka, AGCOT CEO Geoffrey Kirenga, AGM Chair Mark Magila, and Dr. Lutgart Lenaerts, First Secretary for Agriculture, Climate and Environment at the Royal Norwegian Embassy, following a courtesy call […]
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 strategy. The official launch of the Agricultural Growth Corridors of Tanzania (AGCOT) in April 2025 represents the elevation of agriculture to the central pillar of the nation’s long-term economic vision, as […]
Kilimokwanza.org 2026- R2 1. Introduction: The Global and Regional Imperative The final decade of the 20th century marked a pivotal transition in the global agricultural research architecture, particularly regarding the role of root and tuber crops in the developing world. Between 1990 and 1998, the International Potato Center (CIP), operating within the Consultative Group on […]
Kilimokwanza.org Paper No. 1 – January 2026 1. Macro-Economic Context and Sector Performance 1.1 Introduction: The Dual-Economy Transition The agricultural economy of Zanzibar is currently navigating a profound structural metamorphosis, characterized by a strategic pivoting from traditional terrestrial agrarianism toward a comprehensive “Blue Economy” framework. As of the 2024/2025 fiscal period, the sector remains the […]
Kilimokwanza.org Report 52, Dec, 2025 The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) represents one of Africa’s most ambitious and sustained experiments in public-private partnership (PPP) for agricultural transformation. Initiated in 2010, the SAGCOT model has undergone a significant strategic evolution, moving from a broad, geographically-based development approach to a highly focused, value-chain-centric strategy. This […]
Kilimokwanza.org editorial response to “Resurrecting a presumed ghost: the challenges and revival of the Southern agricultural growth corridor of Tanzania in a changing political landscape”Mudimu, Brüntrup & Mutabazi (Third World Quarterly, 2025) Editorial Position Academic critique strengthens policy when grounded in institutional reality. But when evocative metaphor displaces empirical fact, scholarship risks embedding dangerous narratives […]
A conversation with Geoffrey Kirenga reveals how six decades of strategic investment, policy evolution, and farmer resilience built one of Africa’s rare food self-sufficient nations When Geoffrey Kirenga settles into the studio chair at TBC, he carries with him not just the institutional memory of Tanzania’s agricultural sector, but a profound respect for the millions […]