The food security of more than 80% of Tanzania’s population and the country’s economic growth depend on family farming on certifi ed village lands. Realizing importance of smallholder’s roles in food security and economic development, the government ntroduced Village Land Use Planning (VLUP) as a tool towards sustainable family arming in support of green growth – a strategy for sustainably improving productivity within degrading natural resources. This study explored the potential for village certifi cation and VLUP processes to improve opportunities for sustainable family farming and green growth development. The study focused Mbarali District in Mbeya Tanzania, where interest in VLUP has been growing a result of increasing demands on land for agriculture, livestock, conservation and, more recently, large‑scale agriculture investments. The study found that while the VLUP process is an important stepping stone for securing land tenure for smallholder farmers, many barriers currently prevent it from contributing to green growth at a signifi cant scale. Among the pertinent challenges are inadequate support (fi nancial and technical) for implementation, lack of undertstanding of village certifi cation and VLUP processes and its participatory nature by key actors, insensitivity to minority groups’ needs, and contests over boundaries between village governments. Preliminary fi ndings show that, where properly implemented, VLUP would potentially advance family farming leading to the issuing of Certifi cates of Customary Rights of Occupancy (CCRO) to individual farm families, providing legal mechanism for more vulnerable producers, particularly women, to protect their land and resources, guaranteeing long term access to common pool resources within the village, and reducing social confl icts.