Agriculture in Tanzania represents almost 30 percent of the country’s GDP with three quarter of the country’s workforce involved in this sector.  Agriculture is undoubtedly the largest and most important sector of the Tanzanian economy, with the country benefitting from a diverse production base that includes livestock, staple food crops and a variety of cash crops.

There are plenty of business opportunities across domestic, regional and international markets, for both traditional and new products. However, productivity is low with modest progress over the past two decades. It is dominated by smallholder farmers dependent on rainfall for irrigation. Farmers and other sector stakeholders face considerable challenges in modernizing the industry to increase yields, exports and value-added processing. Slowing export revenues; land acquisition hurdles; and smallholder farmers struggling to access economically viable technology, adequate storage facilities, markets and credit have affected the sector.

The most common food crops in Tanzania are maize, wheat, rice, sweet potatoes, bananas, beans sorghum, and sugar cane. Cash crops include coffee, cotton, cashew nuts, tobacco, tea and sisal.