Editing Tanganyika groundnut scheme (section)

{{Short description|Failed development plan in Tanganyika}}
{{More citations needed|date=June 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2022}}
[[File:Tanganyika F13.jpg|thumb|Map of [[Tanganyika Territory]], 1936]]
The '''Tanganyika groundnut scheme''', or '''East Africa groundnut scheme''', was a failed attempt by the British government to cultivate tracts of its African trust territory [[Tanganyika Territory|Tanganyika]] (now part of  [[Tanzania]]) with [[peanut]]s.

Launched in the aftermath of [[World War II]] in 1946 by the Labour Party administration of prime minister [[Clement Attlee]],<ref name="Gunther">{{cite book
  | last = Gunther
  | first = John
  | title = Inside Africa
  | publisher = Harper & Brothers
  | year = 1955
  | pages = 408
  | isbn = 0836981979}}</ref> the goal was to produce urgently needed oilseeds on a projected 3 million acres (5,000 sq miles, or over 12,000 km<sup>2</sup>, 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 (politician)|John Strachey]], had overlooked warnings that the environment and rainfall were unsuitable, communications were inadequate, and the project was being pursued with excessive haste.  The disastrous project management, initially by the [[United Africa Company]], and subsequently by the government-run [[Overseas Food Corporation]], led the scheme to be popularly seen as a symbol of government incompetence and failure in late colonial Africa.<ref>Alan Wood,  ''The Groundnut Affair'' (1950).</ref><ref>Matteo Rizzo,  "What was left of the groundnut scheme? Development disaster and labour market in Southern Tanganyika 1946–1952." ''Journal of Agrarian Change'' 6.2 (2006): 205-238.</ref> 

Despite the enormous effort and spending £36 million (equivalent to over £1 billion in 2020), the project failed abjectly and was finally abandoned in 1951.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Westcott|first=Nicholas|title=Imperialism and Development: the East African Groundnut Scheme and its legacy|publisher=James Currey|year=2020|isbn=978-1-84701-259-3|location=Woodbridge}}</ref> It was described in 1953 as "the worst fiasco in recent British colonial history."<ref name="Gunther"></ref>