Tanzania: Joint registration of tobacco farmers kicks off in Tabora Region
Tobacco farming in Tanzania is a major export crop, primarily grown by approximately 120,000 smallholder farmers who operate under contract farming agreements facilitated through cooperative societies
DODOMA, December 6, 2025 —The Tanzania Cooperative Development Commission [TCDC], the Tanzania Federation of Cooperatives [TFC], the Tanzania Insurance Regulatory Authority [TIRA], the Tanzania Agricultural Insurance Consortium [TAIC], financial institutions, and stakeholders in tobacco-crop insurance, in collaboration with district commissioners from the Tabora Region, recently agreed to immediately begin the registration of tobacco farmers before the farming season starts.
The agreement was reached during a working session held in Dodoma, aimed at improving crop-insurance services and ensuring that farmers are protected in the event of disasters that may affect production.
Speaking during the meeting, the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer of TCDC, Dr. Benson Ndiege, said that through this registration, farmers’ data will be collected and stored for the benefit of insurance companies, financial institutions, and the farmers themselves. He explained that the data will help determine the exact number of farmers and enable better coordination of services.
“We will begin this registration with the tobacco crop, and later it will cover all crops supervised by TCDC. We will ensure that it starts promptly before the tobacco farming season begins,” said Ndiege.
He added that crop insurance for farmers is now essential, as it protects them when disasters occur, and the Government intends to ensure that every farmer has crop insurance.
For his part, the District Commissioner of Urambo, Dr. Khamis Mkanachi, said farmer registration is important and urgent, because without it, identifying and verifying farmers remains a mystery.
He clarified that completing the registration will help curb the practice of farmers smuggling tobacco, as a farmer who receives a bank loan through a cooperative society will be required to sell their tobacco through their cooperative, and not otherwise.
Tobacco farming in Tanzania is a major export crop, primarily grown by approximately 120,000 smallholder farmers who operate under contract farming agreements facilitated through cooperative societies. These cooperatives coordinate inputs on credit from financiers and sell the tobacco to international companies, with prices and inputs determined by the Tanzania Tobacco Council. The government actively supports the industry, and tobacco is now one of the country’s top exports, though production has historically led to significant deforestation.
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