Agricultural Council of Tanzania (ACT) works for poverty reduction and an improved standard of living for Tanzanians by unifying all members of the agricultural community in the country, promoting and coordinating agricultural interests and supporting and improving the economical and organizational environment for the agricultural sector.

Vision
At the Annual General Meeting in March 2008 the members of Agricultural Council of Tanzania agreed that the Vision of ACT should be:
•    To be the most effective private sector apex organization pursuing a modernized and commercialized agriculture in Tanzania

Missions
Accordingly, the members approved the new mission statements of ACT:
•    To unite and strengthen the private organizations in agriculture for rapid development including its modernization and commercialization
•    To actively undertake participative and consultative lobbying and advocacy role on key private sector agricultural issues on behalf of members and stakeholders
•    To promote, coordinate and protect the interests of all stakeholders in the agriculture and agribusiness in the country
•    To enhance agriculture position in the development of the country

Strategy
To reach its objectives, Agricultural Council of Tanzania has approved that the strategy should, in outline, be to:
•    Mobilize new members
•    Strengthen ACT’s capacity for policy analysis, research and communication
•    Enhance ACT’s lobbying and advocacy
•    Enhance stakeholder consultations
•    Improve collaboration and networking
•    Build the capacity of ACT Board of Directors and Secretariat
•    Build the capacity of the members of ACT
•    Promote investments in the agricultural sector

In 2008 and 2009, ACT will mainly concentrate on developing its own structure especially on who should be members of ACT and which policy and advocacy issues the council should concentrate on and communicate. Networking with likeminded partners and not at least an assessment of members’ and potential members’ training needs and facilitation of their advocacy skills is also on the list of upcoming tasks.
To be capable to carry out all this, ACT will strengthen the capacity of the secretariat and the board.

An apex organization and its members
Agricultural Council of Tanzania is a private so called apex organization – a member based umbrella organization aiming to unite all agricultural stakeholders in Tanzania. Meaning that its members and potential members are:

    * Farmers associations
    * Associations of livestock keepers
    * Cooperatives
    * Associations of input suppliers
    * Agro processors associations
    * Transporters’ associations
    * Researchers 

Constitution
Agricultural Council of Tanzania is registered in 2000 as a company limited by Guarantee.

What should ACT do as apex?
Agricultural Council of Tanzania will on behalf of the members take the dialogue with the Government and other partners. Be it on broad issues on socio-economic policies and on policies and programs relating to agriculture and agribusiness. Being the umbrella or apex for the agricultural private sector, ACT will seek to unite and talk on behalf of all members of the agricultural and livestock community in Tanzania, including farmers’ associations, traders, processors, transporters and academia.Constitution
Agricultural Council of Tanzania is registered in 2000 as a company limited by Guarantee.

From TCAL to ACT
In the first time round ACT was registered as Tanzania Chamber of Agriculture and Livestock Limited. The name change came about in 2005 in order to better portray the image of an apex organization as "council" carries the concept of unity and collective action. 

For more information contact ACT on +255 (0) 22 2124851 or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

Updated March 2008