Why the east African groundnut scheme failed?

Answer 1

The failure was down to totally ill-thought out proposals. A large part of acres in what was formerly Tangyanika (Tanzania) were to be turned over for groundnut production to produce oils, fats and margarine for the post-world war two shortages and austerity of the British people. The logistics, climate and of course those who thought they knew best all contributed to the failure. Surplus and WW2 machines/tractors were brought in by ship to the port of Dar-Es-Salaam. The harsh African bush soon destroyed the ploughs/tractors, with vast thickets, huge baobab trees needing clearing.

Dangerous wildlife hampered the workforce. Water supply was a continuous problem. In one instance, a large concrete-lined tank was built to contain the water (Which was ferried in and not piped in) - the locals used it as a swimming pool, to the chagrin of the European experts and workers on the project.

As it turned out, the climate was too hot, as in when the ground dried, it had a clay-like consistency which, meant it dried as hard as concrete and the groundnuts were hard to extract. They tried to clear the bush more quickly using two tractors, dangling a chain in between them, with a third following up, to dislodge the remaining trees - when each tractor should have been employed churning up its own patch - but at least the former plan worked as on their own, a tractor could not work the land or would be destroyed within hours. There were no available spares or back-ups for this. One manager, a former army officer, tried to continue the programme, in military fashion, which was disastrous in management terms and unworkable. The local drivers were paid according to hours that their tractors were running, with a meter measuring this. So, they'd abandon their vehicles after doing the paperwork, get drunk in town, then the following day, they could not remember in the vast bush, where their tractors were - years later, locals found many abandoned tractors in overgrown ditches. In all, 32,000 African workers were promised jobs, some army personnel recently demobbed but still in Africa were also earmarked and it all came to nothing. The nuts produced were way below the target, the costs to try and maintain it would not be met and the plan failed to the tune of £49 million when cancelled after four years of failure to the British taxpayer, which would be close to a £1 billion in today's money.