Dar es Salaam – Tanzania is charting a bold new course for its agricultural future, embracing an innovative corridor development model that promises to unlock vast economic potential, safeguard food security, and position the nation as a regional leader in agribusiness transformation.
This model, born from the pioneering Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) and now expanded into the nationwide Agricultural Growth Corridors of Tanzania (AGCOT), lies at the heart of the government’s long-term blueprints: the Agriculture Master Plan (AMP 2050), the Agricultural Sector Development Programme II (ASDP II), and the Agenda 10/30 Investment Roadmap. Together, these initiatives underscore Tanzania’s determination to modernize agriculture into a competitive, commercially oriented, and climate-resilient sector.
Agriculture: Tanzania’s Bedrock and Future Growth Engine
Agriculture is more than just an economic sector for Tanzania – it is the nation’s lifeline. It contributes nearly 28% of GDP, accounts for 29.1% of exports, and provides livelihoods for an estimated 65% of the population. Smallholder farmers, the backbone of rural Tanzania, produce the majority of staple crops, yet most operate at subsistence levels, constrained by limited mechanization, irrigation, and market access.
Despite 45 million hectares of arable land, less than a quarter is currently under cultivation. Even more striking, of Tanzania’s irrigation potential, only 2% has been developed. This underutilization presents both a challenge and an unprecedented opportunity. The corridor model is designed to bridge this gap – turning potential into productivity, and productivity into prosperity.
From SAGCOT to AGCOT: Scaling Up a Proven Model
The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) was launched in May 2010 at the World Economic Forum on Africa. Conceived as a bold public–private partnership, SAGCOT aimed to catalyze billions in responsible private investment while advancing Tanzania’s Kilimo Kwanza (Agriculture First) strategy.
Its first focus was on the southern belt linking Dar es Salaam to Malawi, Zambia, and the Democratic Republic of Congo – an area blessed with fertile soils, water, and backbone infrastructure such as road, rail, and power. SAGCOT introduced the concept of “clusters”: geographic concentrations of farmers, agribusinesses, service providers, and research institutions working together to maximize productivity, attract investment, and share infrastructure.
The model paid off. It demonstrated that coordinated, market-driven agricultural growth could raise smallholder incomes, improve food security, and create jobs while drawing in private capital. Communities along the southern corridor saw tangible reductions in poverty and greater participation in value chains for crops such as rice, maize, and horticulture.
Building on this success, the government rebranded and expanded the initiative in 2022/23, creating the Agricultural Growth Corridors of Tanzania (AGCOT). AGCOT now encompasses:
- SAGCOT (Southern Corridor) – the original “food basket” of cereals, tubers, and sugar.
- Lake Zone Agricultural Growth Corridor (LAZAGCO) – spanning Mwanza, Shinyanga, and Kagera, rich in fisheries, rice, maize, and oilseeds.
- Northern Agricultural Growth Corridor (NAGCO) – covering Arusha, Kilimanjaro, Manyara, and Tanga, suitable for high-value crops such as coffee, bananas, tea, and sisal.
- Mtwara Agricultural Growth Corridor (MAGCO) – tapping into cashew, coconut, and emerging horticultural opportunities, strategically linked to southern export markets.
Each corridor is tailored to its agro-ecological strengths, ensuring diversification, resilience, and market responsiveness.
The Corridor Model: A Four-Pillar Strategy
At its core, the corridor development model concentrates resources where conditions are most favorable, thereby accelerating the shift from subsistence to market-driven agriculture. Four pillars underpin its success:
- Land and Water Utilization – unlocking underused arable land and scaling irrigation to stabilize yields and adapt to climate variability.
- Infrastructure Backbone – ensuring farmers can access markets through better rural roads, railways, storage facilities, energy, and irrigation systems.
- Cluster Development – fostering ecosystems of farmers, processors, suppliers, financiers, and researchers that build trust, efficiency, and competitiveness.
- Private Sector Leadership with Public Sector Support – creating an enabling environment where the private sector drives innovation and investment, while government provides research, policy, and infrastructure.
This approach reflects global lessons from corridor-based agricultural development seen in countries like Ethiopia, Vietnam, and Brazil, where targeted zones have transformed agriculture into powerful engines of industrial growth.
Alignment with Tanzania’s National Strategies
The corridor model is not a standalone experiment; it is deeply integrated into Tanzania’s major strategic frameworks:
- Agriculture Master Plan (AMP 2050): Aims to quintuple agricultural GDP to US$100 billion by 2050, triple productivity, and increase food processing fivefold. AGCOT is identified under Flagship 7 as the mechanism for scaling reform, removing regulatory barriers, and attracting private investment.
- Agricultural Sector Development Programme II (ASDP II): A seven-year program (2022/23–2029/30) that integrates climate resilience, livestock, fisheries, and forestry. It empowers smallholders to join out-grower schemes, contract farming, and value chain development within AGCOT corridors.
- Agenda 10/30 Investment Roadmap: Seeks to achieve 10% annual crop GDP growth by 2030, with emphasis on irrigation, mechanization, seeds, post-harvest management, and youth employment.
- Kilimo Kwanza: The 2009 rallying call for “Agriculture First” that first inspired SAGCOT, now being operationalized nationwide through AGCOT corridors.
Anticipated Impacts: Beyond Agriculture
The benefits of the corridor model extend far beyond the farm:
- Economic Growth & Industrialization: Agriculture will supply raw materials to agro-processing and manufacturing industries, fueling Tanzania’s industrial agenda.
- Poverty Reduction: With 97.5% of rural households engaged in smallholder farming, even modest productivity gains translate into millions lifted from poverty.
- Food & Nutrition Security: Improved yields, irrigation, and value chains will ensure stable food supplies, reducing malnutrition rates.
- Investment Magnet: The government projects over US$2.1 billion in private agricultural investments in the next two decades.
- Infrastructure Leapfrogging: Corridors will drive investments in rural roads, cold chains, irrigation schemes, and agro-industrial parks.
- Climate Resilience: With climate change already disrupting rainfall patterns, the AMP and AGCOT embed climate-smart practices, aiming for a 30–35% emissions reduction by 2030.
A Vision for 2050
By 2050, Tanzania envisions itself as a higher-middle-income economy anchored in a transformed, globally competitive agricultural sector. AGCOT corridors will be at the heart of this transformation, turning today’s smallholders into tomorrow’s commercial farmers, youth into agripreneurs, and Tanzania into a regional food powerhouse.
This journey requires more than government action. It will hinge on strong partnerships: between farmers and financiers, researchers and policymakers, traders and transporters. It will also demand international solidarity, as Tanzania’s transformation is not only a national aspiration but also a contribution to Africa’s food systems and global food security.
As President Samia Suluhu Hassan declared during the launch of the AMP, Tanzania’s agricultural renaissance is not optional – it is “the backbone of our economic prosperity and the guarantor of our people’s dignity.”
With the corridor development model, Tanzania is proving that when vision meets action, even the most entrenched challenges can become pathways to shared prosperity.