The global rush for farmland and peoples’ struggle against it
Tanzania adopts new policy to curb land grabbing – analysis
Tanzania has adopted a new national land policy which, among others, lowers the ceiling under which foreign investors can lease land from the current 99 to 33 years. The new policy comes barely months after the East African nation embarked on a campaign to seize “idle” land and deter “rogue investors” from using it for speculative purposes. The government has repeatedly accused some investors of hoarding swathes of land without developing it, while using the land as collateral for securing bank loans or selling it later at a higher price. Tanzania is one of the sub-Saharan African countries which have attracted growing interest from foreign investors as a location of large-scale agricultural investments due to the availability of land and cheap labour. According to William Lukuvi, Tanzania’s Minister for Lands and Human Settlements Development, the new policy aims to put in place an effective land tenure system that fosters economic development for the benefit of the majority of people.