Over the next five years in Tanzania, Feed the Future aims to help an estimated 834,000 vulnerable Tanzanian women, children and family members—mostly smallholder farmers—escape hunger and poverty. More than 430,000 children will be reached with services to improve their nutrition and prevent stunting and child mortality. Significant numbers of additional rural populations will achieve improved income and nutritional status from strategic policy engagement and institutional investments.

Feed the Future Tanzania also aims to:

• Increase yields of target crops by at least 50 percent
• Increase area under irrigation in Tanzania by 15.5 percent through the development of seven smallholder irrigation schemes in Morogoro and Zanzibar
• Increase market access by rehabilitating at least 3,000 kilometers of rural roads, thus reducing post-harvest losses for maize and rice from 20 percent to 10 percent
• Increase trade in the target value chain by at least 25 percent through improved rural infrastructure and improved value chain efficiency 

To help meet its objectives Feed the Future Tanzania is making core investments in four key areas:

1. Systems transformation for the rice, maize and horticulture value chains through agricultural production and processing, and market access and natural resource management 
2. Nutrition, with major interventions targeting children under five and pregnant women
3. Agricultural support services and capacity building including research and development and financial services
4. Addressing major constraints to an enabling policy environment

Target Regions

Nearly 80 percent of Feed the Future funding in Tanzania will focus on the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT).

Highlights

SAGCOT. The Tanzanian government is committed to addressing food security through its Tanzanian Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plan that coordinates all donor and private sector engagement in the country. This plan includes a strong focus on public-private partnership in the SAGCOT, with the Tanzanian Agricultural Partnership and the SAGCOT Centre as local public-private partnership coordinating institutions. USAID is strengthening this local leadership by supporting the establishment of the SAGCOT Centre. The SAGCOT promotes “clusters” of profitable agricultural farming and services businesses, with major benefits for smallholder farmers and local communities. The unique nature of the SAGCOT is due to its strong presidential leadership and meaningful private sector and civil society engagement.  

Targeted Value Chains. Feed the Future will have impact at scale with focused interventions in areas that offer opportunities to catalyze investment in agriculture in the SAGCOT. The U.S. will invest in the rice, maize and horticulture value chains based on their potential to drive growth and improve incomes and nutrition.  

1. Investment in rice will focus on improving inputs and techniques, irrigation and road infrastructure to meet the growing demand for rice in domestic and regional markets. 
2. Feed the Future will target the two-thirds of farmers that engage in maize production by promoting improved technologies and inputs and improving milling, which has the potential to improve nutritional status through fortification.
3. Targeted investments in horticulture will expand economic opportunities, while also enhancing health and nutrition.       

Private Sector Engagement. Feed the Future is promoting private sector engagement through partnerships in the SAGCOT to leverage private sector capacity and encourage the government to apply policies and regulations that are favorable to growth. This SAGCOT partnership is led by numerous Tanzanian private sector companies and receives international support from General Mills, Yara International, Unilever, Syngenta, Land ‘O Lakes, and others.  

Rural Infrastructure. Feed the Future is enhancing agricultural productivity through the expansion of irrigation and market access by reducing transport costs for farm inputs and products, thereby increasing Tanzania’s competitiveness in domestic and regional markets. The government of Tanzania is leveraging considerable local capacity to oversee and implement this work.