Land Conflicts on Agricultural Land in Tanzania
Lessons from Investment Farms in Bagamoyo and Kilombero Districts
Time: Mon 2024-11-25 09.00
Location: DMTC, Ardhi University, Tanzania, Public videoconference, Dar es salaam
Video link: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/62543396555
Language: English
Subject area: Real Estate and Construction Management
Doctoral student: Hussein Kayera , Lantmäteri – fastighetsvetenskap och geodesi, Ardhi University
Opponent: Senior Lecturer Ringo Willy Tenga, Law School, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Supervisor: Professor Peter Ekbäck, Lantmäteri – fastighetsvetenskap och geodesi; Associate Professor Eva Liedholm Johnson, Lantmäteri – fastighetsvetenskap och geodesi; Professor Wilbard Kombe, Ardhi University, Tanzania; Senior Lecturer Felician Komu, Ardhi University, Tanzania
QC 20241024
Abstract
Demand for agricultural land has been rising in many developing countries partly due to opportunities from rising food prices, the need for renewable energy, and the quest for alternative kinds of investments. Tanzania has adopted a range of initiatives aimed at increasing large-scale agricultural investment and has put in place measures for mitigating agricultural land conflicts. However, the country has been experiencing a surge of land conflicts associated with agricultural investments. Limited information is available on how such conflicts arise, how smallholders perceive agricultural investments, and why existing conflict mitigation measures fail to cope with or check the rise in land conflicts hence prompting this study.
Interviews were conducted with key stakeholders including land technocrats, investor representatives, and smallholders. Focus group discussions were done with smallholders and local leaders. Additional data were collected from documentary reviews. Content and thematic analysis were used in data analysis.
Findings indicate that land conflicts between investors and smallholders arise when large chunks of land owned by the government and encroached by squatters are allocated to investors. Squatting is prevalent because large chunks of land are left unused for a long time by the legal occupiers without intervention by authorities that are suppossed to put in place effective land management conditions. Squatters on government farmland have no possibility of getting legal access to the land through adverse possession regardless of the number of years they occupy the land. The inability of squatters to legally access the land is a structural barrier that may cause deprivation and conflict.
Perception of local communities on commercial farming investment varies depending on investor - smallholder relations. Generally, perception is negative. However, perception is better where the investor provides decent employment opportunities and contributes to local development projects.
Existing measures for managing land conflicts are constrained because they are focused on mitigating conflicts originating from resource scarcity, while the main challenge is structural scarcity. It is recommended that existing measures for mitigating land conflicts be optimized and that mechanisms for legal access to unused government farmland be put in place, including seasonal use of land under the administration of village councils and district land offices.