Examining Chinese Investments in the Context of Agricultural Modernization in Tanzania

Abstract

Tanzania has embarked into an ambitious expedition of modernizing its agricultural sector, which is regarded as the bedrock of the industrialization process. The National Five Year Development Plan (2021/22- 2025/26) envisages the creation of backward and forward linkages between agriculture and others sectors of the economy. It is projected that the growth of the agricultural sector will be directly proportional to socio-economic development for the country, but it will also be a mechanism for poverty reduction for the 65 percent of the population that lives on agriculture. In order to achieve this objective the Government of Tanzania has been inviting the private sector (both local and foreign) to seize the opportunities available in the agricultural sector. Chinese companies are some of the investors who have grabbed the opportunity to invest in Tanzania’s agriculture for the production of both crops for export and crops that feed on the local demand. Literature is indicative that the Chinese investments in Tanzania are not necessarily driven by financial incentives provided by the Chinese government in Beijing, but imperialist interests such as the potential of markets, access to raw materials and cheap labour. However, a review of success stories in the revolutionalization of the agrarian sector, such as in East Asia, has taught us that, any meaningful scaling-up of the agricultural sector ought to put smallholder farmers at the centre of the transformation process, and to allow them to grow into the sector. The study will be based on qualitative data obtained from interviews and various documents. By using opposing frameworks such as food sovereignty and conceptions of degrowth movement, this paper interrogates the role of Chinese investments in Tanzania’s agricultural value chain with the view to assess its impact to the economy and to smallholder farmers’ potential to access productive resources such as land, and to grow in the sector.