Mtandao wa Vikundi vya Wakulima Tanzania (MVIWATA) is a national farmers organisation which brings together small holder farmers from all regions of Tanzania in order to have a common voice to defend economic, social, cultural and political interests of smallholder farmers. Founded in 1993, MVIWATA aspires to empower smallholder economically and socially farmers through capacity building and undertake lobbying and advocacy especially by strengthening their groups and networks, facilitating communication and learning so that they are capable of defending their interests.

MVIWATA was founded by 22 innovative farmers from Dodoma, Iringa, Kilimanjaro, Mbeya, Morogoro, Tanga and Rukwa regions for the purpose of creating a farmer-to-farmer exchange forum as a means of enhancing communication among smallholder farmers.  Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA) through its Strengthening Communication Project (SUA-SCOM) guided the initial process in the formation of MVIWATA.

Literally, MVIWATA is Swahili an acronym for the National Network of Small-Scale Farmers Groups in Tanzania.

It was registered in 1995 under the Society Ordinance Act (Registration number SO 8612). In 2000 MVIWATA was registered as a Trust Fund under the Trustees Act of 1956. Following the introduction of the Non-governmental Act of 2002, MVIWATA was received a compliance certificate in 2007. Under this Act, MVIWATA is a non-profit private organisation. The national office of MVIWATA is situated in Morogoro town.

Our Goal:

To unite smallscale farmers (including all small holder producers, whose livelihood depend on land such as pastoralists and fisher folks) in order to defend their interests and address together the challenges of farmers.

Our mission:

To strengthen farmers’ groups and networks, facilitate communication and learning among farmers for the purpose of defending the interests of small scale farmers.

Our vision:

To become a strong national farmers’ organisation that will guarantee small-scale farmers’ participation

“Mtetezi wa Mkulima ni Mkulima Mwenyewe”

The slogan of MVIWATA is Mtetezi wa Mkulima ni Mkulima Mwenyewe literally means the defender of a farmer is the farmer.

This slogan underlines the philosophy of MVIWATA that farmers are the first change agents of their own lives!

MVIWATA was formed to address challenges facing smallholder farmers such as lack of a strong organisation of small scale farmers in the country, exclusion of small scale farmers from decision making process on matters that touch the welfare of small scale farmers and under-representation or complete lack of representation of small scale farmers in decision making bodies, low prices of agricultural produce, unreliable markets and lack of access to financial services. To address these challenges, MVIWATA has been implementing various interventions focusing on lobbying and advocacy and economic empowerment of small-scale farmers. These interventions are based on the five years Strategic Plan of MVIWATA (2010 – 2014).