Sugarcane farms in Bagamoyo govt property - Minister
18th March 2015
Bagamoyo EcoEnergy (BEE)
“The land was under the government ownership and is grossly underdeveloped. It is the government’s desire in collaboration with BEE to ensure that the land is put into the highest and best use for the broader interest of the society and the country,” said Permanent Secretary in Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development, Alphayo Kidata.
In his statement that was availed to this paper yesterday, Kidata said the government is aware of the research conducted by Action Aid and that it had begun sharing the research findings with key stakeholders.
He however noted with concern that ActionAid is avoiding to engage some key stakeholders who would had participated in the research findings in in order to make the report more useful to a wider section of stakeholders.
“We are reminding Action Aid to engage more participants from the relevant villages, ministries and departments as well as farmers in the respective areas. The organisation must follow the law of the land in conducting its research and allow a wider representation and transparency,” said the PS calling on ActionAid to share its research terms of reference with key stakeholders including the government.
According to the PS the research conducted by Action Aid was flawed and did not involve representatives of the farmers from the villages in the project and the local government leadership in Bagamoyo District as well.
Kidata said that even officials from relevant ministries such as the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development and the
Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives were not involved.
“The research was not cleared by the necessary authorities as per the requirement of the law of the land which predisposed it to errors and mistakes,” he said.
He advised ActionAid to involve the farmers in the relevant villages in a non discriminatory way, Bagamoyo District Council and the relevant ministries, in particular the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Cooperatives and the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development.
In another development, the organisation yesterday called on the government to stop the Swedish firm from implanting the project since it had grabbed land from the villagers.
ActionAid Land and Agriculture Manager, Elias Mtinda said their research that involved 153 people shows the government will have 25 per cent ownership in the project for the first 18 years and thereafter its shares will drop to only 10 per cent.
He was presenting the research findings conducted last year and finalised in February 2015 to stakeholders at a dialogue forum on ‘Implications of Large Scale Agro Investment on Smallholder Framers.’
The findings further indicate that since the inception of the project the investor had ever issued performance report to the government. It also cited lack of transparency in the acquisition process.
According to Mtinda, there is no information on benefits sharing and taxes that the investor should pay to the government.
In January this year, the Parliamentary Committee for Lands, Natural Resources and Environment ordered the Ministry of Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development to recover 3,000 hectares of land the latter had sold to an investor - EcoEnergy Ltd in Bagamoyo District, Coast Region.
According to the committee, the 3,000 hectares are within 20,000 hectares of Saadani National Park in the district.
The committee said EcoEnergy Ltd acquired the hectares of land from the former investor - RAZABA Ranch who intended to grow sugarcane.
Sometime last year, thousands of villagers of Gama Makaani, Matipwili and Makurunge, located 40 kilometres from Bagamoyo, expressed their concern over the government’s plan to forcefully evict them from their village land and give it to an investor.
According to the investor, Anders Bergfors, his company, Eco-energy was planning on acquire a total of 11,200 hectares from the former RAZABA Ranch but the villagers argued otherwise saying the proposed land under investment was 20,639 hectares and not 11,200 hectares.
Managing Director for BEE, Anders Bergfors, refuted the allegations saying they were baseless and unfounded saying it was the villagers who invaded the area.
Bagamoyo Ecoenergy Limited (BEE), a subsidiary of the Sweden-based EcoEnergy Africa The AB which planned to undertake the $500 million (Sh800 billion) project that would also increase national sugar production.
Within three years operations, the project was expected to annually provide the domestic market with 130, 000 tonnes of sugar, 100,000 MWh to the national and 10 million liters of ethanol.
Early works of the project included preparation of nursery cane land, expansion of the out grower programme and preparation for initiating resettlement.
Other early works were to de-silting of a dam for pastoralists, land clearing for bulk water canal, main haulage road and clearing of project area boundaries.
Several villagers who talked during the launch of the early works praised the progress made by the company.
Shukuru Mbatto, the Chairman, Bagamoyo District Council, said local residents had agreed to work together with the investors and tap the benefits that come along with the massive investment.
He said the villagers were ready to settle differences, some of which are in the court of law. “Let me assure you that we will amicably end the problems that have existed between the investor and the villager” he said, adding that the latter had realised the benefits of the project.
The Bagamoyo Member of Parliament, Shukuru Kawambwa allayed fears that residents would not be fairly compensated and that the government did not care about them.
Kawambwa who is also the Minister for Education and Vocational Training assured the company of the government’s commitment to increase investment in the country and would offer prompt assistance should the need arise.
He praised the company on the progress made so far towards modern cultivation of sugar cane which will see increased sugar production, electricity and ethanol for running vehicles.
“We are happy with the progress we have witnessed on the ground,” he said during the launch of early works.
It is envisaged that 150,000 tonnes of sugar was expected to be produced annually after the start of production in 2014.
Also expected was the production of 30 megawatts of electricity and ethanol that could be used in operating vehicles.
Of the 30MW, 15MW was expected to be used by EcoEnergy while the remaining power was to be used by the surrounding communities.
The then Minister for Agriculture and Food Cooperative, Christopher Chiza who officiated the event said the government will continue supporting such promising investments in the country for the benefit of both parties.
Citing EcoEnergy as an example, he said once production starts it will greatly help meet the country’s demand for sugar which has the capacity of producing only 60 per cent and imports the rest.
He said the government works to ensure that it attracts investments in sugar and rice plantations because the availability of the two agricultural produce in the country will also help stabilise the economy. “We will help promote and facilitate good investors in agriculture in a win-win situation,” he said.
The investment was expected to benefit over 300 farmers who would be contracted to cultivate and eventually sell their produce to the company.
The Executive Chairman of the company Per Carstedt said his company was serious in undertaking large scale sugarcane irrigation farming in Tanzania for local and international markets.
“This will help reduce importation rate for things such as sugar and oil,” he said, adding that it will be a major contribution to the economy.
In 2006 the company signed Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Tanzania (GoT) to cooperate in the development of the country’s agribusiness sector.
The project was to include the establishment of a greenfield sugar cane plantation of approximately 7,800 hectares (ha) with an additional approximately 3,000 ha by independent sugar cane plantations (out growers)
This sugar project was structured in order to maximise sugar and power production and would, out of the by products from the sugar production, molasses, produce ethanol.
Sugar cane yields were projected to be between 90 and 110 tonnes per hectare - long time average.
EcoEnergy has operated a farm of 200 ha with advanced sub surface drip irrigation in a neighbouring area to the commercial farm since 2007 achieving good cane yields.
At full operations, the project was expected to process approximately 1million tonnes of sugar cane annually and produce 125,000 tonnes of sugar for the domestic market, deliver 100,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of power to the national grid and produce 8 million litres of fuel Ethanol for the domestic market.
The project is in line with Tanzanian agricultural and rural development initiatives. Only 6,000,000 ha of the total 45,000,000 ha of potentially arable land in Tanzania are currently farmed and 70 percent of the farmed land is hand hoed.
SOURCE: THE GUARDIAN
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