Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

In the wake of the 2007 finance crisis, large-scale land acquisitions became increasingly popular. Investing in land for food and biofuel production was seen as safe and with the potential of a ‘win-win-win’-scenario where the investments would create economic growth, increase food production, and lift smallholders out of poverty. However, in Tanzania, one in three of such investments have not fulfilled what they promised by becoming non-operational. We still have a limited understanding of why such investments become non-operational and how smallholders are affected by them.

This thesis aims to contribute to the existing literature on non-operational large-scale land acquisitions by describing a non-operational investment in Mkulazi ward, Tanzania. Empirical data was collected in the investment area, using observations and interviews with smallholders, but also with representatives from both the Tanzanian government and the state-owned company that was responsible for the initial investment (Mkulazi Holding Company Limited). By using ‘open moment’ as an overarching theoretical concept, coupled with perspectives on societal structure, knowledge, and uncertainty, the findings indicate that smallholders have been affected greatly, but in different ways. Depending on what societal structure they belonged to and what knowledge they had about the land before the investment, they chose different strategies when the investors came, in part due to different levels of experienced uncertainty that the open moment caused. Also, the opportunities and risks the smallholders identified regarding their land-use was greatly influenced by the non-operational LSLA.