Tanzania: Imperial Projects And the Food Crisis in the Periphery

Considering Tanzania’s position in relation to food crises around the world, Ng’wanza Kamata laments the inability of Jakaya Kikwete’s government to develop the ‘agricultural revolution’ it once promised.

Highlighting that food production difficulties have over the years invariably been attributed to drought and peasant farmers’ supposed laziness and poor agricultural methods, Kamata argues that the government should now begin to look in the mirror and acknowledge its own shortcomings. With the budget for agriculture consistently low despite the sector’s support for around 80 per cent of Tanzania’s total population, the author contends that the country’s producers essentially remain subject to the same exploitative relations first imposed during the colonial period. In the face of contemporary political elites’ willingness to embrace biofuel production methods, Kamata stresses that the touted agricultural revolution should prioritise the needs and role of the country’s poor agricultural majority and not simply bend to the will of foreign corporations.
In more recent times this internalisation of the imperial equation in the agricultural sector has been seen in the way political elites have embraced biofuel projects. The world over, with the exception of those who want to profit from these projects, doubts have been expressed on the impact of biofuel projects on agriculture and food security. The debate within Tanzania echoes such concerns. In a palaver held in October 2008 at the University of Dar es Salaam there was a general consensus that biofuels are not good for Tanzania and African countries. It has been cautioned that biofuel crops will take arable land used for food production, that food prices will rise to levels unaffordable by the poor majority, that many people will lack adequate nutritional food owing to biofuel farming’s emphasis on monoculturism, and that biofuel projects will unleash a new wave of land-grabbing in the rural areas. This will cause great uncertainty among peasant farmers and will have negative effects on food production. It was resolved that the country should concentrate more on food production and support for peasant farmers because it is this group of producers which has sustained the country for years. It was also resolved that biofuel projects are not intended to help us, but instead they are meant to resolve the problems of other countries, especially in Europe and the United States.It was concluded that the country should focus on food production, and address the question of the nutritional value of food for a healthy population.

The government’s response to the debate on biofuel has been to attempt to allay fears that biofuel will cause serious problems to the country in relation to food prices. It has also claimed that Tanzania has plenty of arable land that cannot be destroyed by farming crops meant for the production of biofuels. As such it has continued to attract foreign investment in the agricultural sector, touting the idea that the country will benefit. The supposed benefits include increased income for smallholding farmers and thus the reduction of income poverty, the introduction of agro-processing industries, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and those from other pollutants, and access to modern technology.

The question is, what is happening elsewhere in the world that does not suffice to dissuade political elites from their blind embrace of biofuel projects? Are they waiting for riots and demonstrations of people carrying empty plates to know what is likely to happen? Isn’t there historical evidence to draw lessons from so that mistakes of the past are not carried to the future? The political elites seem to ignore all this. They talk about an agricultural revolution to be brought about by large-scale farmers. They have no recollection that in favour of that very large-scale farming the state in the 1970s alienated huge tracts of land from the Barbaig of Hanang district. This was done by force because the people vigorously resisted the evictions. Today the Hanang wheat farms are no more. In the 1940s and 1950s the British government introduced a large-scale groundnut scheme in Nachingwea and Kongwa. These were to be the trendsetters for intensive groundnut production in the Tanganyika colony. The aim was to produce oil for lubricating machines in Europe. These schemes also failed. Of these gigantic projects none focused on the food needs of the majority. Instead they caused problems for the rural people. These problems is now being replicated. As its predecessor did, the present government is assisting foreign companies to grab the land of the poor in the rural areas, only this time it is for biofuel. Already in Tanzania foreign companies have started grabbing land. The frontrunners are the two companies of SEKAB and Sun Biofuel.

AllAfrica