Tanzania is hesitant to fully open its doors to large-scale commercial farming for fear of creating a class of landless people in the country. Although allocating land for large-scale farming could foster growth of a vibrant agro-business industry and create jobs, it would also force people out of their land, the government said. The government has asked researchers to find ways of integrating co-operative unions into the agricultural value chain to harness economic benefits while retaining the land for the local people. The Minister for Agriculture, Adolf Mkenda, believes that if smallholder farmers were organised into co-operative unions, economies of scale could be harnessed, efficiency could be promoted and productivity could be uplifted enough to register achievements similar to those gained by large-scale commercial farmers. "If we’re to amalgamate smallholder farmers into large-scale commercial farming, they can equally command strong bargaining power in the market, but the question is how to make such arrangements harness the full potential for the crop industry and at the same time bolster development of agro-processing industry as large-scale commercial farming does," said Prof Mkenda, who was speaking at a conference in Moshi under the theme Co-operatives and Industrialisation: Putting Members at the Centre. He attributed widespread poverty and economic inequality facing rural areas in the country to extremely low output from the agricultural sector.