Publication date: 2013
Author: Jorry Mwenechanya
Description: Tanzania, an East African country of 45 million people comprising 945,000 square kilometers, is among the world’s poorest countries. About 80% of the people live in the rural areas, where agriculture provides livelihoods to 90%. In the arid and semi-arid regions of the north and center of the country, most people depend on growing food crops and tending livestock. Under conditions of inadequate basic infrastructure and weak supportive institutions, agriculture and livestock generate incomes that pale in comparison to earnings from paid employment. Thus, extreme poverty in Tanzania has a distinctly rural character.