Tanzania Agricultural Modernization Association (TAMA) is the national registered but locally active non-governmental organization (NGO) based in Bukoba, Kagera Region, Tanzania. Kagera region is located in the northwestern corner of Tanzania on the western shore of Lake Victoria. The region neighbors Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda and lies across the lake from Kenya.

TAMA, an eleven year old following its legal registration on 10th August 2006 and officially verified by NGOs’ Registrar in September 2017, is determined to alleviate poverty in rural Tanzania by increasing agricultural productivity, improve food security, health, nutrition and enhance climate resilience for future generations.

The major employer of the people of Tanzania is Agriculture. Over 80% of Tanzanians are employed in agriculture. In this strategy the word “agriculture” includes livestock husbandry, growing of crops and pastures, fishing, bee-keeping, agroforestry, land use management and environmental management and conservation.

The remaining 20% of the population of Tanzania also directly or indirectly depend on agriculture for their supplier of raw materials if they are employed in the agro-processing industries. Regardless of this situation, agriculture in Tanzania is purely undeveloped. Productivity per unit of land or livestock is very much below world average. One of the main causes of this situation is that the majority of the peasants do not know the basic principles of good crop and livestock husbandry and those few who know such principles do not practice them.

In Tanzania, agriculture accounts for 45% of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) with a recent average growth rate of 4.8%, 60% of export earnings, and 82% of peoples’ livelihoods. Constraints to rural growth are largely those of agriculture, and include low productivity, lack of inputs; limited irrigation; lack of capital and access to credit; inadequate extension services; poor rural infrastructure; pests and diseases; and land degradation.