Biofuels multinationals are rushing to invest in Eastern and Southern Africa. It all sounds wonderful as the companies pay in kind for use of farm land with the creation of jobs, investment in schools, health clinics and roads…….
The Tanzanian government has granted the British firm the use of 9,000 hectares (22,230 acres) of sparsely populated farmland, or enough land to cover about 12,000 soccer fields, for a period of 99 years — free of charge. In return, the company will invest about $20 million (€13 million) to build roads and schools, bringing a modicum of prosperity to the region.
Sun Biofuels is not alone. In fact, half a dozen other companies from the Netherlands, the United States, Sweden, Japan, Canada and Germany have already sent their scouts to Tanzania. Prokon, a German company known primarily for its wind turbines, has already begun growing jatropha curcas on a large scale. It expects to have 200,000 hectares (494,000 acres) — an area about the size of Luxembourg — under cultivation throughout Tanzania soon.
But the reality is quite different apart from access to potential farmlands gone for the next 99 years, local farming communities are not being consulted, no compensation is being given for lands. As to the promise of jobs and building of infrastructure and services, we’ve all heard this before ………….
With similarly enticing promises, small farmers were talked out of their land several decades ago to make way for coffee plantations. In the 1990s, foreign mining companies arrived in Tanzania to dig for gold. “They promised us jobs, new roads, new wells and schools,” says journalist Joseph Shayo. “And what happened? No schools, no wells and few jobs, which were low-paying jobs, to boot.” To make matters worse, large mining zones were fenced off and became inaccessible to the original residents.
