The Impacts of Tea Production in the Socio-Economic Development of Rungwe District of Tanzania, 1960-2020

The study aims at analyzing and examining the impact of tea production in Rungwe District in Tanzania from 1960 – 2020. Tea has been grown in this area since pre-colonial time until to date. This, however, has not been without impacts to the people of Rungwe. These impacts have not been actively put down in order to help the present and future generation learn and cope with global changing techniques and methods of modern tea farming. The study has used historical approach and integrated the agricultural policies as a way of analyzing the impacts of tea production in Rungwe District of Tanzania. The study has used the qualitative and quantitative methods and data was collected through interviews from the key informants and documentary reviews. The study revealed that tea production contributed to the transformation of Rungwe District from rural to urban. The study also suggests that, the impact of tea growing has continued changing depending on the signs of the times. For instance, when the political juggles change, such as nationalization and privatization of national resources, the policies also change and, hence, the impacts change. All these have been meticulously tackled in this study.