TY - JOUR

T1 - Land and contract farming

T2 - Changes in the distribution and meanings of land in Kilombero, Tanzania

AU - Isager, Lotte

AU - Fold, Niels

AU - Mwakibete, Anne

N1 - Funding Information: This study is part of a collaborative project between Mzumbe University (Tanzania) and the University of Copenhagen (Denmark). The project is entitled “Enhancing Productivity, Market Access and Income of Small farming Business: Potentials and Limitations of Contract Farming” (POLICOFA) and was financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Denmark (Grant No. 13‐P03‐TAN). We are grateful for the responsiveness of farmers in Kilombero (Tanzania) with whom we have interacted and interviewed. We also thank the POLICOFA research team for stimulant discussions during our work and to three anonymous reviewers who offered constructive comments and suggestions for improvements of this paper. Publisher Copyright: © 2021 John Wiley & Sons Ltd

PY - 2022

Y1 - 2022

N2 - In the context of contract farming of sugarcane in an outgrower scheme in Tanzania, this paper explores how the scheme has fundamentally altered people's relationships with the land over the last 50 years, in particular, since 1999, when, after three decades, the sugar parastatal was privatized. The paper reviews the literature on the mutual relationship between contract farming and land ownership and examines the scheme with a focus on long-term changes in the forms of land acquisitions and land use. We argue that the meaning and importance of landownership in contract farming schemes needs to be reassessed if participation in contract farming entails a departure from previous forms of acquiring land, generates new spatial patterns of agricultural production, and necessitates additional economic and social resources in order to transform land into an economic asset.

AB - In the context of contract farming of sugarcane in an outgrower scheme in Tanzania, this paper explores how the scheme has fundamentally altered people's relationships with the land over the last 50 years, in particular, since 1999, when, after three decades, the sugar parastatal was privatized. The paper reviews the literature on the mutual relationship between contract farming and land ownership and examines the scheme with a focus on long-term changes in the forms of land acquisitions and land use. We argue that the meaning and importance of landownership in contract farming schemes needs to be reassessed if participation in contract farming entails a departure from previous forms of acquiring land, generates new spatial patterns of agricultural production, and necessitates additional economic and social resources in order to transform land into an economic asset.

KW - contract farming

KW - land acquisition

KW - land use

KW - sugarcane

KW - Tanzania

U2 - 10.1111/joac.12456

DO - 10.1111/joac.12456

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85117913603

VL - 22

SP - 36

EP - 57

JO - Journal of Agrarian Change

JF - Journal of Agrarian Change

SN - 1471-0358

IS - 1

ER -