[h=3]1943: 100,000-acre (405 km[SUP]2[/SUP]) Tanganyika wheat scheme[/h] The British Government decided to develop wheat growing to help feed a war-ravaged and severely rationed Britain and eventually Europe at the hoped-for Allied victory at the end of the Second World War. An American farmer in Tanganyika,
Freddie Smith, was in charge, and
David Gordon Hines was the accountant responsible for the finances. The scheme had 50,000 acres (202 km[SUP]2[/SUP]) on the
Ardai plains just outside
Arusha;
25,000 acres (101 km[SUP]2[/SUP]) on Mount Kilimanjaro;
and 25,000 acres (101 km[SUP]2[/SUP]) towards
Ngorongoro to the west. All the machinery was lend/lease from the USA, including 30 tractors, 30 ploughs, and 30 harrows.
There were western agricultural and engineering managers. Most of the workers were Italian prisoners of war from Somalia and Ethiopia: excellent, skilled engineers and mechanics. The Ardai plains were too arid to be successful, but there were good crops in the Kilimanjaro and Ngorongoro areas.[SUP]
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