Agriculture

Agriculture, livestock, and fisheries are crucial to Tanzania’s economic growth, employment, and poverty reduction. In 2024, the sector contributed 26.3% to the country’s GDP. It also serves as the largest employer, employing 61.4% of the national workforce.

Sectoral growth has demonstrated a positive trajectory, growing 4.1% in 2024 and 4.0% in the first nine months of 2025. This expansion is attributed to the increasing adoption of modern technologies in crop production.

Agriculture remains a vital component of foreign exchange earnings, accounting for 23.6% of total goods exports in 2025. Tanzania continues to supply established traditional markets, including the European Union—specifically Belgium, Poland, and Germany—the UAE, and Far East markets including South Korea, Indonesia, and China. Simultaneously, the sector is expanding into new markets, such as the United States, for cashew nuts.

Crops

The crops sub-sector alone contributed 16.1% to the national GDP in 2024. Food crop production increased significantly from 17,148,290 tonnes in the 2021/2022 period to 22,803,316 tonnes in 2023/2024.

This surge raised the country’s Food Self-Sufficiency Ratio to 128%. Major food crops driving this production include maize, rice, pulses, bananas, sisal, and cassava.

Other commercially and domestically important crops encompass paddy, sorghum, millet, potatoes, sweet potatoes, various roots and tubers, beans, dried oil seeds, vegetables, and fruits, alongside traditional cash crops such as cashew nuts , coffee, cotton, tea, and tobacco.

Livestock and Fisheries

In 2022, the livestock sector accounted for 7.4% of GDP and 26.1% of the agricultural GDP (AgGDP). In 2023, it contributed 6.2% of GDP. The sector supports 4.6 million households within the livestock value chain. Its cattle population is immense at 36.6 million—the second largest in Africa—and represents 1.4% and 11.0% of the global and African total cattle population, respectively.

The total value of all livestock groups—cattle, goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens—reached TZS 33.22 trillion in 2024/2025. Meat exports showed growth of 5.75% in 2024/2025 compared to the previous year, reaching a total export volume of 9,863.41 tonnes of meat with a value of USD 44.07 million.

Goat meat remained the leading export product, accounting for 64.69% of the total meat exports, reaching 11 countries.

The fisheries sector contributed 1.7% to GDP in 2024/2025 and employs about six million Tanzanians within its value chain. In 2023, Tanzania produced 513,802.47 tonnes of fisheries products. Natural water fishing accounted for 479,976.62 tonnes, while aquaculture contributed 33,825.85 tonnes. By April 2025, total fishery product exports reached 44,317.78 tonnes, representing a 7.38% increase compared to 41,271.07 tonnes in 2023/2024.

National Development Policies and Financing

The Agricultural Master Plan 2050 provides a long-term roadmap to modernize the crops, livestock, and fisheries sectors, serving as the agricultural engine to achieve the Tanzania Development Vision 2050 goal of becoming a higher middle-income country.

The plan focuses on expanding irrigated land, increasing the use of improved inputs, promoting mechanization of farm activities, strengthening access to extension services, and reducing post-harvest losses.

A mid-term ambition has been set for 2030 to achieve the first stage of agricultural transformation. Targets include attaining 10% annual growth in the agricultural sector, increasing smallholder incomes to approximately USD 1,500 (TZS 4 million), expanding agro-processing to USD 3 billion (around TZS 8 trillion), and achieving USD 6 billion (around TZS 16 trillion) in net agricultural exports.

To accelerate the implementation of the Master Plan, the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) introduced the Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (AGCOT) initiative in 2025. AGCOT covers Tanzania’s Central Zone, Southern Zone, Mtwara Zone, and Northern Zone, targeting a USD 100 billion agricultural GDP, USD 20 billion in net exports, and 10% annual sector growth by 2050.

Investment Opportunities

Tanzania has a total land area of 94.5 million hectares, of which 44 million are classified as arable. Currently, only 10.8 million hectares, equivalent to 24%, are under crop production, and fewer than 4,000 large-scale commercial farms operate in the country.

The country offers massive, untapped potential across the entire agricultural value chain. For investors, this translates into high-yield opportunities ranging from large-scale commercial farming and irrigation infrastructure to advanced agro-processing facilities.

In the livestock and fisheries segments, the Government is actively pursuing private capital to establish meat and dairy transformation plants, deep-sea fishing operations, and marine aquaculture hubs.

Last Update: March 2026