Africa-Press – Tanzania. THE government has temporarily handed over all assets and a total of 5, 138 hectares of Basuto Wheat Farm Company Ltd, to the Hanang District Council while it prepares a long-term land use plan for the plantation.
The plantation have been lying idle after being abandoned for about two decades now, a situation that has frequently prompted Katesh villagers in Hanang District, Manyara Region to ask the government to allocate the farm to them for the objective of developing it.
The 5,138-hectare Basotu farm in Hanang was among seven farms that were once under the management of the defunct National Agriculture and Food Corporation (NAFCO) and was at the peak of production in the 1980s before declining from the late 1990s and collapsed in 2004.
Its assets and farms were transferred to the then Loans and Advances Realisation Trust (LART) for liquidation through a divestiture method that the Ministry of Finance termed “receivership” and it was placed under the supervision of Joseph Tadayo Advocates for the past 15 years.
After years of deliberations, on Wednesday, Advocate Joseph Tadayo presented the plantation’s title deed and other assets documents to the Treasury Registrar, Mgonya Benedicto at the TR Office in Dar es Salaam.
Other assets contained 37 buildings, which include 28 residential houses, two warehouses, six silos, one recreational centre, one restaurant as well as a shop. It also contained several mega machines such as wheat harvesters and tractors.
“TR office appreciated Joseph Tadayo Advocates for the close supervision of the farms despite facing various challenges,” said the Mr Mgonyo, shortly after the documents handover ceremony.
Mr Mgonya also handed over the documents to Hanang District Executive Director (DED) Ms Jenifa Omolo as a temporary initiative while the government is planning for a long-term use plan of the farms.
Basuto Wheat Farm Company Ltd was the only plantations at Hanang plains out of seven under NAFCO that was not privatised by the government and was still under government ownership by 100 per cent.
After NAFCO collapsed, its remaining farms were either advertised for sale or transferred to the then Parastatal Sector Reform Commission (PSRC), which was tasked with the responsibility of completing the privatisation or divestiture of the farms.
What followed, however, was a series of contentious deliberations which stalled the privatisation process, a situation that led to frequent invasions of farms by farmers and pastoralists.
Consequently, the Hanang District leadership wrote a letter to the TR Office, seeking approval for the farms to be placed under its custody for protection.
Advocate Tadayo was pleased to hand over the farms back to the government, saying he faced myriads of challenges for the past 15 years. Apart from Basuto farm, other farms at the Hanang plains were either privatised or distributed to wananchi by the government in a bid to sustain production.
They include Gawal, Warret, Gidagamowd, Satchet, Murjanda and Mulbadaw. The government repossessed Gawal and Warret farms that were redistributed to the people in Hanang for farming, residential and livestock keeping, while Gidagamowd, Satchet andMurjanda were privatised to Ngano Company Limited in 2005.
Mulbadaw farm was sold to Haydom Lutheran Hospital in 2006. The government privatized the plantations to get enough tax and create employment opportunities unfortunately some investors failed to run the business and ended up closing farms.
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