Brazil Set to Assist Tanzania Survey Biofuel Farming Areas

Africa, Feedstocks, Infrastructure, Policy, Sustainability, Tanzania

October 15, 2010

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by Beatrice Philamon (IPP Media) Tanzanian and Brazilian experts are expected to carry out a countrywide survey to identify and propose strategic areas that would be allocated for biofuel farming.

“Our intention is to have special areas or land that will be used for biofuel development or farming in the country,” Head of Communications in the Ministry of Energy and Minerals, Aloyce Tesha, told The Guardian in an exclusive interview on Sunday.

He said that the Brazilian Government had agreed to provide the required technical support so that Tanzania could go on carrying out its planned activities.

…Already investors have requested for 4 million ha for biofuel investment, especially for jatropha, sugar cane and palm oil countrywide.

…They said that investors are targeting many areas of land which are perceived as being unused or marginal in terms of their productivity and agricultural potential.

“With interest in allocating such areas for biofuel increasing, the security of land tenure and access or use rights on the part of local resident communities across rural African landscapes is potentially at risk,” the point out in their research.

Current land tenure in rural Africa is often characterised by high level of insecurity, as a result of the colonial legacy of centralised ownership of land by the state, coupled with weak mechanisms for accountability and enforcement of land rights. READ MORE

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