Mange af Tanzanias millioner af småbønder er oprørte over regeringens jordpolitik
Police in Tanzanias northern Manyara region are investigating the hacking to death of a farm manager after growing hostility towards the government’s promotion of big-scale farming, BBC online reports Thursday.
A gang of 15 people allegedly ambushed Mr Sifael Jackson’s car and killed and decapitated (halshuggede) him with spears, machetes and clubs (køller).
Some residents in the region accuse the government of threatening their livelihood by allocating land to big commercial farmers, including foreigners. But the government says its policy is aimed at boosting food production and ensuring that land is not under-utilised.
At least four farms have been invaded this year near Babati town in Manyara region, with fields torched and property destroyed.
The government is concerned that the violence would scare away foreign investors who it believed were helping Tanzania’s “Green Revolution”.
The government’s campaign to promote large-scale commercial farming is a dramatic reversal of the socialist policies it advocated after independence.
Critics say, the policy is at the expense of the vast majority of small scale farmers (småbønder), even though the government has stated, it wants to help them be instrumental in securing national food security in this vast East african country.
