Tanganyika groundnut scheme

Launched in the aftermath of World War II in 1946 by the Labour Party administration of prime minister Clement Attlee,[1] the goal was to produce urgently needed oilseeds on a projected 3 million acres (5,000 sq miles, or over 12,000 km2, an area almost as big as Yorkshire), in order to increase margarine supplies in Britain and increase the profits from the British Empire.

The scheme's proponents, including Minister of Food John Strachey, had overlooked warnings that the environment and rainfall were unsuitable, communications were inadequate, and the project was being pursued with excessive haste.

[7] The Tanganyika initiative represents part of a "second colonial occupation" within the British Empire, characterised by economic control and technological expertise.

[8] In 1946, Frank Samuel, head of the United Africa Company, came up with an idea to cultivate groundnuts in Tanganyika, a British colonial territory under UN trusteeship, for the production of vegetable oil.

[10] After a three-month mission, the team's report in September 1946 was optimistically favourable to the scheme and recommended the cultivation of 3.21 million acres for groundnuts by 1952.

In the spirit of 'making do', the scheme bought up surplus Sherman tanks and got the Vickers engineering company to take the armour off and put a bulldozer blade on the front, creating what were known as "shervicks"—but these too proved no match for the African bush.

[citation needed] In September 1947, the African workers joined a nationwide strike for three days; the expatriate staff were less than delighted to have to do their own cooking.

He found the scheme in a state of chaos, and immediately tried to instil some military discipline, which did not endear him to the workers, but subsequently retreated to his tent to concentrate on copious paperwork in a vain effort to contain the spiralling costs.

The scheme's managers therefore began to focus attention on the more fertile regions in the west and south of Tanganyika, but the development of both was proving painfully slow.

Mechanised production was stopped, and the cleared land handed over to African farmers, who did a better job growing tobacco and cashew nuts and herding cattle.