Why was the Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme a failure?
The Tanganyika Groundnut Scheme, started in 1947, was a failure due to a lack of planning and prior research on behalf of the British colonial government. The scheme failed on the ground due to a multitude of reasons from the fertility of the soil, the lack of appropriate machinery, and a lack of buy in from local communities. Firstly, Britain was in such need to create a dollar earnings area, and thus develop its economy, that it rushed into developing the Tanganyika Groundnut scheme. The initial commission was only nine weeks long, producing only a simple document, which did not make way for any smaller pilot scheme to run first and ensure the validity of the scheme. Secondly, the scheme failed to allow for the area’s soil and rainfall, which was not appropriate for groundnut growth. Likewise, local traditions and attitudes were not taken into account, and so the groundnut scheme also failed to engage the local community. Furthermore, the colonial government also had the wrong machinery for the terrain, which meant that most tractors struggled immensely. Its abandonment on January 9th 1951, was a sum of these failures.
