US firm to invest in $100 mln Tanzania farms JV

By Fumbuka Ng'wanakilala

DAR ES SALAM (Reuters) - U.S. firm, AgriSol Energy LLC, and its joint venture partner in Tanzania will invest more than $100 million over the next 10 years to develop a large-scale commercial farming project in the east African country, a company director said on Tuesday.

AgriSol, led by well-known Iowa farming and ethanol executive Bruce Rastetter, has joined with Serengeti Advisers, a Tanzanian investments and consulting firm, to invest in crop and poultry production in western Tanzania.

"Our initial project in Lugufu involves approximately 10,000 hectares -- a tiny percentage of the overall available land in Tanzania -- but large enough to have a meaningful impact on the country's agricultural industry," Bertram Eyakuze, one of AgriSol Tanzania's directors, said in an e-mailed response to questions submitted by Reuters.

"We project that it will cost in excess of $100 million over the next ten years to develop Lugufu fully," Eyakuze said, adding the focus would initially be on the growth of maize and soy, which would in part be used to produce feed for livestock and cooking oil.

Poultry production would also be a focus of the project, to eventually wean Tanzania off importing chicken from Brazil and other countries.

"Tanzania has 43 million hectares of arable land, of which only about 10 million hectares, or 23 percent, is currently being farmed, leaving more than 30 million hectares available to produce food for the people of Tanzania and eventually the rest of Africa," Eyakuze said.

He said investors would look into expanding farming activities once the Lugufu project was completed.

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