African Agriculture and Food Systems
How Local Entrepreneurs Are Transforming Tanzania’s Cocoa Value Chain Through Homegrown Chocolate Brands Dar es Salaam — While Tanzania has long been recognized as a producer of fine-flavour cocoa beans, a quiet revolution is underway in the country’s agricultural sector. A small but growing number of Tanzanian entrepreneurs are moving beyond raw cocoa exports to manufacture premium […]
Fruits 8.05 million tons. Vegetables 1.63 million tons. Spices 95,458 tons. Total horticulture production at 108.68% of plan, with 33.9% growth over five years. The horticultural sector has been quietly outperforming, year after year. In a Hotuba dominated by the headline crops — cotton, cashew, coffee, sugar — horticulture is the quiet performer that has […]
Coffee at 88% of target, sugar at 59%, tobacco at 93%. Three crops with similar histories, very different current trajectories — and three distinct policy responses in the FY 2026/27 budget. Coffee, sugar and tobacco have been Tanzanian cash crops for as long as Tanzania has existed as an independent country. They share a colonial […]
617,684 tons of raw cashew produced in 2025/26. The target was 700,000. Most cashew belts are within striking distance of full delivery. Behind the numbers: 100 shelling machines for 2,800 youth, the TARI Naliendele pathology laboratory at 67% completion, and a serious pesticide procurement programme. Cashew is one of Tanzania’s most reliable cash crops. It […]
222,014 tons of cotton produced in 2025/26. The target was 400,000. The gap is real — and the recovery plan is concrete: a Simiyu kongani, ginnery revivals at Mhunze and Uzogole, 28,000 tons of certified seed, 100,000 sprayers, and 761 newly hired young extension officers in the cotton zones. Cotton is the trickiest of Tanzania’s […]
After two decades of decline, the cooperative movement is back at the centre of Tanzania’s agricultural story — with 3.36 million members, integrated digital infrastructure, and a fresh Tsh 22.67 billion budget allocation. There is a number in this year’s Hotuba that, if you have followed Tanzania’s rural economy for any length of time, will […]
Without certified seeds, accredited plant-health testing, validated tissue culture and reliable soil analysis, none of the headline targets in the Hotuba are reachable. The FY 2026/27 budget builds the laboratory backbone. Among the line items in the FY 2026/27 Hotuba that will not generate headlines, there is a category that quietly determines whether the headlines […]
Subsidies, soil scans, cooperative records, market prices, lab results, weather data, identity verification, payment processing — all of it now flows through one integrated platform. The FY 2026/27 budget takes the next step. If you want to understand how Tanzanian agriculture has been quietly modernising, do not start with a tractor or a seed variety. […]
From Kasumulu to Tunduma to Sirari, Tanzania’s agricultural exports cross at a handful of land borders that have, until recently, been operating well below capacity. The FY 2026/27 budget changes that. The geography of Tanzanian agricultural export is unusual on the continent. Most countries that export agricultural produce do so primarily through ports. Tanzania does […]
The award-winning tree-to-bar brand expands international distribution, proving Tanzanian agricultural products can compete—and win—on global premium markets Kilimokwanza Special Report | May 1, 2026 In the rolling terraces of Kyela district, where volcanic soils meet the climate-moderating influence of Lake Malawi, a transformation is unfolding that extends far beyond the cocoa trees. Mababu Chocolate, Tanzania’s […]