Land Values For Agriculture Activities in Tanzania (Focusing on Youth)
Land Values and Agriculture in Tanzania (Focusing on Youth)
In a country where agriculture is the backbone of the economy, young people have vast potential to make positive change through investing in agriculture. However, they need an enabling environment – and notably access to land – and a stronger commitment to the use of land for agriculture and other valued economic activities. More than 65 percent of youths (defined as ages 15-34) in Tanzania find employment in agriculture, but they lack the proper foundations and equal opportunities to reach their full potential. They face immense challenges when it comes to accessing land, as they are effectively precluded from participating in sustainable agricultural practices and using technology to improve agriculture production and productivity. In these circumstances, the country badly needs to develop youth-responsive land policies and implementation to change this status quo
Land policy in Tanzania
Over recent decades, Tanzania has made significant strides to ensure that, there are land rights protections and security of tenure for its population. In efforts to support that action, STAWI developed and implement several interventions that encouraging long-term investment in agriculture through proper land ownership established from SHFs get access to “Certificate of Customary Rights of Occupancy – CCROs. Also, STAWI works on policy reformation to ensure land rights for marginalized groups such as women and young ladies (specifically dropped from school) are granted. Moreover, STAWI put much emphasis to ensure youth get access to land as this targeting age group can be used as an engine of transforming Tanzania’s economy through different agriculture development programs.
The National Land Policy of 1995, Village Land Act, No. 5, and the Land Act, No. 4, both of 1999, are the main instruments providing land rights and tenure systems to Tanzanians – yet none specifically integrates youth land rights or acknowledges the challenges the youth face in seeking land for development. STAWI works in alignment with all developmental policies and various development commitments offered by the Tanzania Government and developmental stakeholders to foster economic involvement of youth for the national development through ensuring youth access to productive land in Tanzania.
Moving further, the National Agricultural Policy of 2013 and the National Strategy for Youth Involvement in Agriculture of 2016- 2021 note and appreciate the challenges that face youth to participating in agriculture – including limited accessibility and acquisition of land – but again they are wide of the mark concerning land rights for youth. The recently tabled Draft National Land Policy could be a valuable instrument to address the youth’s land-related needs and challenges, and it is important that the policy be youth-focused and possibly be driven by the youth themselves through their councils, clubs, and forums.
Challenges to youth land access that STAWI have identified and committed to address
1. Youth face problems in financing land purchases, as financial lending institutions perceive youths as risky borrowers, and youth therefore commonly lack collateral on which to access credit.
2. Youth in Tanzania are often considered as ‘future adults’ instead of being considered within their age bracket and possessing unique capacities and capabilities. Largely owing to this, they have often overlooked in-laws and excluded from policy spheres.
3. A common mechanism for youth to acquire land is through inheritance. However, this can involve extensive delays unreasonably, resulting in lost time for youth involvement in agriculture rather than having a national strategy for land provision to youth.
4. Noting that, inherited land is often limited in terms of quality, size, and location. Deep-rooted for accessing CCROs discriminate youth when it comes to inheritance of land, especially for girls.
5. Strategies and policies in Tanzania commonly fail to align directives regarding youth land access, which can lead to confusion in practice, ultimately limiting youth access to land and this hinders youth commitment to agriculture.
6. Land purchases or rentals also often presents serious obstacles to youth. With remarkably undeveloped formal markets as land commoditization grows, land market information is inadequate for youths interested in buying or renting.
Youth and the transformation of agriculture
Tanzania is at a defining moment for youth land rights. Despite the obstacles currently preventing youth from accessing land, we know that youth involvement in agriculture offers a great opportunity for advancing the country’s development as the country depends on most in agriculture. This is especially the case if and when they have secure land tenure. Securing youth land rights will assure youths’ commitment in agriculture and this will also help control rural-urban migration. Secure land tenure by youth will greatly improve agricultural productivity as youth will employ climate-smart agricultural practices on their land.
Youth also have significantly higher rates of mobile phone internet access than other age groups, and can therefore leverage this to utilize modern agricultural practices and connect to the internet to obtain beneficial information such as weather forecasts, agri-business trends, market prices, and agricultural tips.
To increase the youths’ access to land in Tanzania, STAWI in collaboration with the government is focused on formalizing the rapidly growing land markets and regulating price negotiations for land sales and rentals so that youth can access land through markets.
In the same collaboration, the government of Tanzania and STAWI are still facilitating youth positions of being financing by banks and other financial institutions through negotiations for special low-interest rates for loans to help the youth acquire land purposely for agriculture activities. In addition to that, STAWI facilitates the creation of formal youth groups to collectively access credit and land with advantageous prove of improving youth sustainable development growth. All of these will be possible if and only if the government will consider undertaking a review of all land-oriented policies and legislation while doing so through youth-sensitive lenses as a crucial development component. Such reviews can ultimately inform the development of youth-oriented policies with specific provisions prioritizing the involvement of the youth in programs that allocate land. STAWI believes that the approach will benefit the youth by linking them to access to land as well as related sectors such as information and communication technologies, as well as entrepreneurship and business development.
Perhaps even more importantly, STAWI involves the youth more in all policy processes at all levels – from the national level down to the grassroots. Meaningful participation by youth in decision-making will promote stronger youth access to land and other resources and can help to better address the unique challenges facing youth as a special segment of the population.
In addition to that, STAWI believes that youth need more consistent and comprehensive access to information regarding their rights to land and other resources. There will be meaningful progress only after the youth have fundamental knowledge and understanding of their rights to land and the mechanisms through and by which to access them.
Ultimately, the potential of youth in Tanzania is immense. It is up to the rest of us to facilitate the opportunities for them and therefore to realize the transformation we need to see in the country’s social, political, economic, and overall development.
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