Afronline – The Voice Of Africa

At the Copenhagen summit on climate change biofuel is one of the most controversial subject, provoking numerous arguments about the consequences of using huge pieces of arable land to make it grow.

Over the past two years, various foreign countries – China, India, South Korea, Britain and the Arab Gulf states leading the pack – have picked up huge slices of African farmland by lease or purchase to produce food or biofuels for their own use.

African farmers have asked to stop the land grabbing process (for biofuels, servicing external food security and speculation) until governments develope new guidelines and policies fully negotiated with stakeholders and citizens to address a process that has become unsustainable.

In Tanzania MVIWATA is the most important network of farmers and it is member of the Eastern Africa farmers’ federation. According to Stephen Ruguva, President of MVIWATA, biofuels production can be an opportunity for Africa. But only if common rules are established.

According to a recent report published by Fao, Tanzania is in the top five of African countries where lands are bought by foreign actors in order to produce biofuels. Have you observed any acquisition in your region? Are you monitoring the situation?

Recently we have heard and witnessed increasing interests and actions – especially by foreign companies – to acquire land for biofuel production, food production and for other uses such as mining and hunting blocks (tourism).

We have the examples in the Coast region – Bagamoyo and Kisarawe districts – where two companies have acquired nearly 209,000 hectares of land for biofuel production.

You also need to note that negotiations at the governmental level are held in high secrecy. Only when companies go to the villages to seek the land people become conscious of the land acquisition moves.

There are also unconfirmed reports on the interest of some companies in expanding production of sugarcane for bioethenol in the Morogoro region by involving outgrowers.

However, even if there is a lot of confidentiality in the negotiation process, we are monitoring the situation in collaboration with our partners.

MVIWATA is one of the biggest organisations of farmers in Tanzania. How are you organized and what are your goals?

MVIWATA is organised into local networks, district and regional networks which all converge into the national network.

Our main goal is to bring together small-scale farmers all over the country, capacitate them in order to defend their interests and undertake common strategies to address smallholder farmers’ challenges – including economic and policy constraints.

What are the consequences of land grabbing on farmers and on the Tanzanian population in general?

There are several consequences. Firstly, it causes the disruption of livelihood by taking away their farms or preventing local communities from utilising their land for farm and non-farm economic activities.

Secondly, the disruption of ecology is clearing large land areas in order to plant biofuel crops such as Jatropha or sugarcane. On top, crops like sugarcane need a lot of water for their growth and that disrupts the normal water cycles in the ecologically fragile areas.

The conversion of land primarily made for crop production into a land for biofuel increases the risk of food insecurity and makes food prices rise. There are also concerns that diverting labour force from food production to biofuel production might endanger food security situation for local communities and indeed at a national level.

If land acquisition will continue to have the precedence, this could lead to a potential social imbalance in long terms.

How many hectares of land have been leased or bought for biodiesel production and where?

There are about 40 companies that have acquired or are in the process of acquiring land from villages.

It is unclear how many hectares have been put under biofuel production exactly but it has been estimated that land area basing on the requirement of the companies may be as high as 3-4 million hectares.

Nine regions have been generally earmarked for production of biofuels; the Coast Region, Ruvuma, Kilimanjaro, Tabora, Tanga, Morogoro, Kagera, Shinyanga, Arusha and Kigoma

Is local population involved in the negotiation process for land acquisitions?

Generally, negotiations of land acquisition are done without the full knowledge of the local communities. And secondly the villagers negotiate without adequate knowledge of the impact of giving land away. Sometimes persuasions are done by companies. I mean such as providing allowances or meals to people that attend meetings which aim at giving away the land.

In your opinion, how is it possible to address this situation?

I think it is needed to get back to a legal system which clearly indicates the powers of the villages in land allocation, the powers of local governments and those of the central government. In fact some inconsistencies in the lows could be removed not to have legal loopholes that allow foreign companies take away land from local communities.

Is Jatropha a sustainable way to product biofuel?

Large-scale Jatropha production is not a sustainable way for many reasons. It binds labour and land that is suitable for crop production. There is information that Jatropha is alternate host to pests of cassava and that poses danger in the cassava production. Moreover, biofuel production is largely for external market and not for local use.

Does MVIWATA discuss the issue of land acquisition with government at a national level?

This is one of the priorities for MVIWATA. It has been discussed at least during two annual general meetings that were respectively attended by over 200 participants. The government so far has responded by halting giving away new land until clear guidelines for biofuel production are developed.

By Emanuela Citterio – Afronline.org