Agriculture is the main part of Tanzania's economy. As of 2016, Tanzania had over 44 million hectares of arable land with only 33 percent of this amount in cultivation. Almost 70 percent of the poor population live in rural areas, and almost all of them are involved in the farming sector. Land is a vital asset in ensuring food security, and among the nine main food crops in Tanzania are maize, sorghum, millet, rice, wheat, beans, cassava, potatoes, and bananas. The agricultural industry makes a large contribution to the country's foreign exchange earnings, with more than US$1 billion in earnings from cash crop exports. The 6 main cash crops are as follows;
Cashew nut
Coffee
Cotton
Sisal
Tea
Tobacco
At one point in its agricultural history, Tanzania was the largest producer of sisal in the world. The agriculture sector faces various challenges and had been the governments top priority to develop to reduce poverty and increase productivity. Farming efficiently has been a challenge for many farmers, and lack of finances and farming education has caused many to remain subsistence farmers. Farm sizes remain very small with an average plot size being around 2.5 ha. Challenges on the Agriculture Industry of Tanzania include lack of agricultural technology, droughts, floods, and agriculture temperature shocks. These pose severe challenges to the living standards of most of people involved in the Agriculture Industry in Tanzania and create huge increases in unemployment, hunger, malnutrition and starvation, and diseases rates. Large declines in commodity prices, decreased export revenues, increased trade and budget deficits all amount to hindering the growth of the country's gross domestic product. The Agriculture Industry in Tanzania represents 32.4 percent of GDP of Tanzania.
Coffee is grown on a large scale on both estates and by smallholders that form co-operatives and involves over 400,000 farmers. Coffee has been grown in the country since the colonial times and is a major export crop, earning over 17 percent of the country's foreign exchange. Tanzania mainly grows the arabica type; however, small farms in the Kagera Region grow Robusta coffee. Tanzanian coffee is globally more commonly known as Kilimanjaro Coffee.
Sisal was brought to Tanzania from Mexico by the German East Africa Company in the late 19th century. Sisal is grown in the northern regions of the country, such as Tanga and Kilimanjaro. At the time of independence in 1961, Tanzania was the largest producer of sisal in the world. Sisal production continued to decline after the Ujamaa movement and the continued depreciation of world prices. In recent years, the government has tried to liberalize the sector to encourage growth and increase export revenues.
Cashew production
Cashew production in Tanzania began towards the end of the British trusteeship of Tanganyika in the 1950s. In 2012, Tanzania was the world's eighth largest producer of cashews and the fourth largest in Africa. Poor regulation and lack of reliable payments to farmers has plagued production. Cashew mainly grows in the southern regions of the country such as Mtwara and Lindi, and more than 90 percent of the nuts are exported in raw form. The raw nuts are mainly exported to India for processing due to a very small processing capacity domestically. The lack of domestic processing firms has cost the country vital foreign revenue and thousands of jobs. The Government has been struggling to find potential investors to revive the cashew processing industry.
