DAR ES SALAAM, June 15 -- FOR years, smallholder farmers have toiled individually, earning little despite feeding the nation. Today, through cooperative societies, they are gaining collective strength, accessing better markets, improving productivity and turning their efforts into meaningful and sustainable income growth.

Cooperative societies are increasingly empowering farmers by ensuring reliable markets, increasing production and recognising their contribution to national economic development.

The cooperative movement in Tanzania originated from conflicts of economic interest in the production and marketing of cash crops, leading to the enactment of early legislation and the formal recognition of cooperatives in the 1930s.

After in...