From: Leo Odera Omolo
Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2009 23:56:14 -0700 (PDT)

TANZANIA GOVERNMENT IS FORCED TO ABANDON ITS INVESTMENT WORTH MILLIONS OF SHILLINGS AFTER A STORMY PROTEST OVER PLANNED EVICTION.

News Analysis by Leo Odera Omolo In Kisumu City.
TANZANIA has suspended investments worth millions of dollars after a
storm of protest over the eviction of farmers out of their ancestral
land to make way for biofuel project.
It has since been reported that Dar Es Salaam will not start any new
biofuel project before the government reviews the selection criteria
for such investment.
The government has also halted allocation of huge chunks of land to
biofuel investors.
Under fire from international and local environmentalists, the
government said it will stop further acquisition of land by biofuel
investors, pending clear procedures and policies in such investments.
The government in recent past has faced even more serious questions
since newswires reported two weeks ago that more than 1000 rice
farmers across the country would be evicted to pave the way for
biofuel projects.

The criticism peaked up last week when a researcher from Sokoine
University of Agriculture, Mr Kenneth Bengesi Kitunda, said the
government was treating biofuel investment as a “bottomless pit” at
the expense of farmers.

A senior government official told a local media house that President
Jakaya Kikwete has ordered all regional authorities to halt current
and future biofuel projects and acquisition of land from the
villagers.

The coordinator of the biofuel project in the Ministry of Agriculture,
Food Security and Cooperatives has halted acquisition of land by
investors ,until there are clear procedures and policies.

The ban came at a time when, already 40 companies have biofuel
projects in the country . The government said it was waiting for the
Cabinet to pass and approve regulations. “Thereafter, we will prepare
policies to pin down investors once they have done something against
the interests of the country“, said Mrs Mfugale.

Fear of food shortages and pleas from peasants and environmentalists
forced the government to suspend the allocation of thousands of
hectares of arable land and eviction of rice farmers over biofuel
projects.

The new move highlights the growing problem of feeding the nation as
investors in biofuel expand into farmland and villages, inducing
farmers to abandon food crops..
Mrs Mfugale has ordered the local government to stop selling land to
biolfuel investors until clear procedures and guide lines are issued..

“The government went wrong, we have to stop and set out clear
procedures to biofuel investments,’ she said.

The decision to halt biofuel investments is likely to have a knock-on
effect as the government has already spent USD3.1 million secured as a
grant from Sweden and Norway to strengthen policy legal framework to
support a sustainable biofuel industry in Tanzania.

Mrs Mfugale said the government had little knowledge of the presence
of biofuel investors, but it is doing all it can now to get into a
full picture.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Food Security and Cooperatives has
already identified broad land uses from its land use categorization.

Farming and livestock take up 47.5 per cent ,forest, bush land and
wetland 37.1 per cent, water resources, seven per cent, wetland 9.8
per cent, build-up areas 0.3 per cent and bare rock 0.3 per cent.

A local weekly reported recently that it has been informed that the
three main potential land users are already threatened by the
introduction of biofuel, especially jetropha cultivation.

Farming will give away 17.5 per cent to biofuel investors; pastures
and meadows suitable for livestock, will give way 29.4 per cent and
forests, woodland, bush and grassland will give away 37 per cent. They
are also likely to displace farmers and livestock keepers.

The Tanzania Investment Centre has already set up a “land bank” of 2.8
million hectares, identified as suitable for investment projects .

It has set aside 1.1 million hectares of land for agriculture, 1.4
million hectares for housing estates, as suitable for investment
project, 587,880 hectares for industry, 445,90 hectares for mining ,
238,930 hectares for ranching and 711,027 for tourism.

Ends
leooderaomolo@yahoo.com
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Subject: public protest forced Tanzania to abandon its multimillion dollar biofuel projects