Uplifting smallholder farmers
Powering growth in agricultural economy
Driving positive change in Tanzania's agriculture through empowerment and sustainability.
AMDT’s Background
Tanzania’s economy is driven by agriculture. Eighty percent of Tanzania’s poor live in rural areas. Despite agriculture being the backbone of the economy, per capita agricultural production is amongst the lowest in the world. Tanzania’s National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (Mkukuta II) recognises the potential of agriculture and calls for transformation of the sector. The national policy, Kilimo Kwanza, defines the approach, policy instruments and strategic interventions. It aims to increase production and add value to products locally, to create more employment and substantially reduce poverty.
The Government of Tanzania and development partners agree that growth in the sector will be driven by the private sector and that Tanzania’s micro, small and medium enterprises provide the important linkages to the agricultural sector. These are the enterprises that supply farm inputs, provide business services, and engage in the trading, processing, packaging and retailing of agricultural products. The full potential of agribusiness opportunities in Tanzania has not been realised. Past attempts to develop this sector have been fragmented and have not reached the scale necessary to create significant impact on the lives of poor women and men.
The Agricultural Markets Development Trust (AMDT) is a Tanzanian-owned trust established to support better coordination between value chain development initiatives, enhance and improve the understanding of agricultural market systems, improve productivity and market access for micro, small and medium enterprises, maximise the impact of programmes, and more effectively contribute to reducing poverty in Tanzania.
AMDT’s Beneficiaries
AMDT’s target beneficiaries are the productive poor women, men, and youth involved in smallholder agricultural production (smallholder farmers) and in other agricultural on-farm and off-farm economic activities as employees earning a wage or self-employed.
The productive poor for AMDT are classified as those earning US$0.74/day (classified as being under severe poverty), through to those living under impoverishment, who occasionally live above the poverty line (US$1.25/day or national poverty line). . AMDT will not be targeting its work to the poorest of the poor although it is expected that some trickledown effect could occur with jobs created that will be accessible to poorer segments.
Our Mission is to unleash large scale systemic change in agricultural market systems such that productive poor women, men and youth are able to take advantage of more inclusive, resilient and competitive market systems. AMDT believes that enabling large scale systemic change targeting market systems critical for the productive poor, creates a much stronger chance of achieving sustained pro-poor impact.
AMDT envisions an agricultural sector where productive poor women, men, and youth in Tanzania have increased and sustained income and employment opportunities.
Development Partners
