Rice farmers may be evicted by new biofuel companies

By MIKE MANDE (email the author)
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Posted Monday, September 28 2009 at 00:00

Tanzania farmers in key arable areas face eviction by multinational corporations
out to cultivate agrofuel products.

More than 5,000 rice farmers from various parts of the country could be
affected.

This will trigger an environmental and humanitarian crisis as displaced
villagers are left without land to grow food crops.

A new report made available to The EastAfrican last week by an international
environmental group warns that Tanzania's water sources, so critical to food
production, will also be diverted to fuel production, increasing conflicts over
access to water.

The report was compiled by a local environmental group, the Environmental, Human
Rights Care and Gender Organisation (Envirocare) Tanzania, and an international
organisation, the Impact of Jatropha Trade in Tanzania.

It says the government has few qualms about evicting farmers from their only
means of livelihood, even if this sparks civil conflict.

According to the report, the government wants to fast-track agrofuel initiatives
and switch vast areas of land to sugarcane, palm oil and jatropha production,
pushing out locals to poorer lands.

"The most fertile lands, with best access to water, are being targetted, even
though they are already used for food production by small-scale farmers," said
the report.

Abdallah Mkindi, environmental officer of Envirocare Tanzania, said that the
country plans to place extensive areas under biofuel cultivation, including
sugar plantations in the Wami River Basin, displacing small-scale rice farmers.

Mr Mkindi said that with the country routinely depending on imported food aid,
owing to frequent drought, producing fuel for export instead of food for locals
will deepen poverty and food insecurity in the years to come.

He said more than 1,000 rice farmers in Wami Basin, Coast region, a vast area in
the alluvial flood and delta plain of the Wami River and its distributaries, and
another 1,000 rice farmers in Ruipa, Mtwara region, will be displaced to pave
the way for cane growing.

"The Usangu plains, another area identified for potential sugarcane production,
have already seen the government's willingness to accommodate large investors at
the expense of small-scale farmers," he said.

http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/-/2558/663988/-/qyclh8z/-/