Daily News | 9 October 2013
Investors must surrender Idle farmland-President Jakaya Kikwete
-editorial
President Jakaya Kikwete has once again railed at the unholy practice of hoarding large chunks of land without developing them for years. The president says that this evil move retards national development and impoverishes subsistence farmers.
Mr Kikwete was speaking in Kisarawe District on Sunday where he directed authorities to ask holders of vast tracts of land what they planned to do with them. He ordered that state should repossess the land if the holders fail to offer convincing explanation. It is imperative to mention at the outset that this problem will escalate if regional and district leaders do not heed the order issued by the president.
The government saw this nettling anomaly a few years ago and has, all along, been working on it. It has been decided that local and foreign investors who intend to venture into agricultural projects be allocated a maximum of 10,000 hectares.
The idea is to slam the brakes on corrupt allocations of land to investors, some of whom are mere land bankers. Land bankers are greedy investors who purchase huge chunks of land, often corruptly and leave them unattended for years so they can re-sell them at a higher price.
Tanzania parcels out 10,000 hectares to large-scale investors but the beneficiaries in this category are sugarcane growers. The other category involves rice farmers who get the minimum 5,000 hectares. The upshot here is to limit the prospect of ‘land banking.’
In some cases investments have failed due to insufficient soil fertility, financing difficulties or over-ambitious business plans. In Tanzania, for example, some large biofuel projects have now been abandoned.
But the land still remains in the hands of the ‘looters.’ Even where investments are profitable, it is often difficult to see how they contribute to poverty reduction. The jobs created are few, short-lived and low-paid – and public revenues are limited by tax exemptions. Some farmers in this country get a raw deal when their tracts of farmland are passed to so-called ‘investors’ with little or no compensation at all.
Again, this is “land grabbing” which is, indeed, a felony. It is worthwhile to point out here that this is an undesirable practice that knocks small-scale farmers off their feet condemning them to poverty and servitude.
Many kind-hearted activists around the world have raised concern that if care is not taken, poor villagers, including those in Tanzania, will be forced off their land by agribusinesses, a sorry spectacle that will marginalise subsistence farming.
Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete says hoarding large chunks of land without developing them for years retards national development and impoverishes subsistence farmers.
Investors must surrender Idle farmland-President Jakaya Kikwete
-editorial
President Jakaya Kikwete has once again railed at the unholy practice of hoarding large chunks of land without developing them for years. The president says that this evil move retards national development and impoverishes subsistence farmers.
Mr Kikwete was speaking in Kisarawe District on Sunday where he directed authorities to ask holders of vast tracts of land what they planned to do with them. He ordered that state should repossess the land if the holders fail to offer convincing explanation. It is imperative to mention at the outset that this problem will escalate if regional and district leaders do not heed the order issued by the president.
The government saw this nettling anomaly a few years ago and has, all along, been working on it. It has been decided that local and foreign investors who intend to venture into agricultural projects be allocated a maximum of 10,000 hectares.
The idea is to slam the brakes on corrupt allocations of land to investors, some of whom are mere land bankers. Land bankers are greedy investors who purchase huge chunks of land, often corruptly and leave them unattended for years so they can re-sell them at a higher price.
Tanzania parcels out 10,000 hectares to large-scale investors but the beneficiaries in this category are sugarcane growers. The other category involves rice farmers who get the minimum 5,000 hectares. The upshot here is to limit the prospect of ‘land banking.’
In some cases investments have failed due to insufficient soil fertility, financing difficulties or over-ambitious business plans. In Tanzania, for example, some large biofuel projects have now been abandoned.
But the land still remains in the hands of the ‘looters.’ Even where investments are profitable, it is often difficult to see how they contribute to poverty reduction. The jobs created are few, short-lived and low-paid – and public revenues are limited by tax exemptions. Some farmers in this country get a raw deal when their tracts of farmland are passed to so-called ‘investors’ with little or no compensation at all.
Again, this is “land grabbing” which is, indeed, a felony. It is worthwhile to point out here that this is an undesirable practice that knocks small-scale farmers off their feet condemning them to poverty and servitude.
Many kind-hearted activists around the world have raised concern that if care is not taken, poor villagers, including those in Tanzania, will be forced off their land by agribusinesses, a sorry spectacle that will marginalise subsistence farming.
