Dar es Salaam. When Jumanne Abdul, 45, built his house 18 years ago, Msimbazi River was almost 60 metres away from his plot.

By then, he couldn’t have imagined that the river bank would have eroded the huge chunk of land to just a few metres from his house today. Now, he is forced to relocate whenever the rainy season arrives as he fears for his family.

For years, floods have significantly impacted Dar es Salaam residents living in lowland areas.

Dar es Salaam. Land acquisition by investors is said to be one of the major causes of land disputes in Tanzania - especially when locals are not involved in the processes.

Some leaders at the village level offer lands to prospective investors without getting approval from village authorities in accordance with the Village Land Act of 1999.

This, to a large extent, has been sparking land disputes, which normally result in stagnation of investment in the area and at times leading to violation of human rights.

Reports of a shortage of land for agriculture in some rural areas are surprising, to say the least. A few years ago it was reported that hundreds of youth in Arumeru District, Arusha Region, were relocating to Kenya because of a lack of farmland in the area.

This state of affairs is surprising because it is quite unusual for rural residents to complain about a shortage of farmland in their areas, where agriculture is supposed to be the mainstay of the local economy.

PRESIDENT Samia Suluhu Hassan yesterday reminded senior administrative officials to use good sense to boost investments, instead of being held back by law provisions

She made this remark when addressing senior administrative officials for various regions , cautioning them to undertake their duties diligently, as she will not tolerate underperformance.

The president said she was aware that those entrusted with such positions at local government levels abuse such positions, like arrogating land for their own use against interests of people in those areas.

THE Forestry and Value Chains Development Programme (FORVAC) has brought in positive results in
Namtumbo District, Ruvuma Region as villagers are no longer engaging in illegal logging as it was in the past.

Reports have it that villagers are now aware of the dangers that comes with illegal logging and
deforestation and in turn they collectively conserve the nearby forests so as to earn cash that
makes them to execute different village development projects.

Dar es Salaam.  In his recently delivered Budget Speech, the Minister for Lands, Housing and Human Settlements Development (MLHHSD) reiterated that his ministry was responsible for the housing docket in national development, handling the task of promoting and enabling the construction of quality housing. Looking forward to the next five years, the minister told Parliament that the ministry would focus on strengthening investment in the construction of low cost housing.

AN agribusiness company, Jatu Public Limited Company is planning to raise 7.5bn/- through an initial share offer due this year with a target to invest in irrigation farming in various crops including maize and sunflower.

Jatu Plc which will sell 15 million ordinary share when its IPO starts in mid July and ends at the
end of the same month this year, has already secured 5,000 acres of land in Kiteto district of
Manyara region where it plans to cultivate maize and sunflower.

AS President Samia Suluhu Hassan meets representative of various groups of Tanzanian society, herders have come out with a call that they should not be forgotten because they have longstanding pressing issues worthy of a presidential audience.

He said such a meeting will enable the president to recognize their plight including in being disregarded by political leaders who hand out wrong instructions to them as if livestock keeping activities have no contribution to the national economy.

The global thirst for palm oil has never been more ravenous. Caught between it and a multigenerational war on Thailand’s poor are the farmers of the Southern Peasants’ Federation, who simply want a piece of land to call their own.

Main photo: Palm tree jungles and the mountains of Surat Thani Province in southern Thailand.

The Cambodian government is embarking on a number of ambitious development projects, which critics say come at the expense of the environment and people’s livelihoods

Main photo: Sophea Soung has been cultivating vegetables – such as this water mimosa – in Phnom Penh’s Tompoun Lake for over a decade, but her livelihood is now under threat (Image © Thomas Cristofoletti / Ruom)