• The government plans to acquire 10,000 tractors and set up 1,000 service centers
• Mechanized farmland more than doubled to 4.35 million hectares by 2023–24
• Only 24% of Tanzania’s arable land is currently cultivated

Tanzania has launched a national agricultural mechanization strategy covering 2026–2036, Prime Minister Mwigulu Nchemba announced at the opening of the African Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization in Dar es Salaam on Feb. 3.

According to information reported by the local daily Daily News, the new roadmap provides for the acquisition of 10,000 tractors in the coming years. It also includes plans to establish 1,000 integrated agricultural machinery service centers at the neighborhood level across the country.

These initiatives are expected to consolidate progress already recorded in the sector. In its annual report for the 2023–2024 fiscal year, the Ministry of Agriculture said the area of farmland cultivated using tractors more than doubled compared with the 2019–2020 season, reaching 4.35 million hectares.

This progress reflects the expansion of the operational machinery fleet. Official data show that the number of small tractors in service increased by 76%, from 8,883 units in 2019–2020 to 15,633 units in 2023–2024. Over the same period, the operational stock of large tractors rose by 30.7% to 25,632 units.

“These figures point to improved machinery servicing, operator training, and spare parts availability, all of which are essential for maintaining equipment uptime and productivity,” the report said.

Large agricultural potential remains underused

Despite the gains made over the past five years, the area of farmland cultivated using animal traction still stood at 4.69 million hectares in 2023–2024, pointing to significant remaining potential for further mechanization.

For Dodoma, accelerating agricultural mechanization is also key to better exploiting the country’s land resources and improving farm productivity. Official data indicate that Tanzania has nearly 44 million hectares of arable land. Yet only 24% of that area, or about 10.8 million hectares, is currently cultivated. This low utilization rate highlights the limits of traditional practices based on animal traction and manual labor.

While details on the origin of the 10,000 new tractors have not yet been disclosed, the government said in July 2025 that it was considering the acquisition of new models and equipment developed by Belarusian agricultural machinery manufacturer MTZ. More recently, in January 2026, the company said it had entered discussions with local industrial conglomerate Kiluwa on the possible establishment of a tractor assembly plant in Tanzania.

Stéphanas Assocle