Resurrecting a presumed ghost: the challenges and revival of the Southern agricultural growth corridor of Tanzania in a changing political landscape

Abstract

The Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT) gained significant international attention after its announcement by former Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete as one of Africa’s first agricultural development corridors. Since then, SAGCOT has faced sporadic changes in a shifting political economy context. This study examines how SAGCOT has evolved across different political regimes in Tanzania, and how political regime orientation shapes the country’s agriculture transition, especially its corridor approach. In addition, the article focuses on what dynamics led SAGCOT to suffer the fate of other large-scale public projects and what arguments support its revival. Evidence reveals that the broader political economy and development approach undertaken by the state, ranging from modernisation through foreign and private investments, agricultural investments, resource nationalism, industrialisation and pragmatism, have supported SAGCOT growth and also brought about negligence and the decline of SAGCOT within Tanzania’s broader economic transformation. This points to the centrality of a political regime’s orientation as important in understanding agriculture transformation, especially in agrarian-based economies. Although designed as an international private–public partnership crafted to survive any regime change, it has been strongly affected by the shifting priorities of successive regimes. These findings provide lessons for similar national lighthouse projects.