Land has remained a major means of production in all walks of life. Been the major means of production, land has attracted interests to people from all scopes of sectors thereby leading to disputes in areas where proper understanding of land laws and policy is minimal or absent at all.

Smallholder farmers who reside in rural areas are the most prone and vulnerable to land disputes due to lack of awareness on land laws and policies.

In recognition of this challenge MVIWATA has been organising various training related to land rights, laws and policies and gender equality to smallholder farmers residing in rural areas and who are involved in production of various produces through their groups so that they may know their land rights and defend.

A training to 21 smallholder farmers from Kondoa and Kiteto Districts (10 women, 11 men) whereby 30 percent were youth was conducted at MVIWATA Headquarters for seven (7) days. This one week training was preceded by a training on preventive measures against the COVID-19 disease to participants by a medical doctor.

With preventive measures against COVID-19 disease in place during the training and as part of adopting to the “new normal” the training focused on the topics as follows: Land policy and Land laws in Tanzania, Categories of land, Village Land Administration and Governance system, Introduction to land transfer, Land transfer – village to general, Land transfer – general to village, Land acquisition, Women Land Rights, Introduction to land use planning/Things to consider in land use planning, Stages of creating land use plan, inclusion of both land tillers and pastoralists, Customary Right of Occupancy, Land disposition, Rights of mortgagee and mortgagor, Introduction to land dispute settlements, MVIWATA Legal aid hub, MVIWATA mission, vision and membership and finally Monitoring and Evaluations.

The trained smallholder farmers are expected to be land rights focal persons for challenges related to land arising in the respective areas. They are also expected to train smallholder farmers in their producers groups.