Expanding large-scale agriculture in the name of the green economy in Tanzania

Written by Mikael Bergius, Tor A. Benjaminsen and Mats Widgren

Featured image: Kilombero Plantations Ltd at the foot of Udzungwa mountains in Kilombero, Tanzania. Photo: Mikael Bergius (2017).

Since the Rio+20 conference in 2012, the ‘greening’ of growth and economies has been framed as an opportunity for international capital flows to contribute to sustainable development. Critics of the emerging ‘green economy’ have, however, expressed concern about the effects on smallholder livelihoods from a ‘green development’ trajectory focused on ‘modernization’.

This is an emerging scenario in our research on Scandinavian investments within the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) – the main Tanzanian initiative to implement the green economy in the country. At a side event at the Rio+20 conference, the former Tanzanian Minister of State, Terezya Huvisa, promoted SAGCOT as a ‘laboratory for testing and implementing’ green growth.

Three Scandinavian agribusiness investment projects – Kilombero Plantations…