§ Mr. Sydney Irvingasked the Secretary of State for the Colonies, if he will state the proportion of cultivated land in Tanganyika which is farmed by Europeans and Africans respectively. The proportion of the territory which is at present under cultivation and the number of African farmers who are growing the main cash crop of Tanganyika sisal.
§ Mr. Profumo,pursuant to his reply [OFFICIAL REPORT, 16th July, 1957; Vol. 573, c. 949–50], supplied the following information:
Farmland in arable, orchard, plantation or pastoral use in Tanganyika is estimated at 45.4 million acres out of a total land area of 219.3 million acres or just over 20 per cent. It is estimated that the proportion of European farmed land to the whole farm area in the territory is about 5 per cent. as against about 94 per cent. farmed by Africans. No statistics are kept of the number of African sisal growers, although it is estimated that at least 100,000 African farmers cut and 280W process sisal grown on their holdings as an adjunct to the increasingly important cash crop, cotton.