File:On World Food Day, secure land rights for farmers like Hadija (8093124072).jpg

In Kiharaka village in Tanzania, people are marking this year's World Food Day with an appeal that more must be done to secure land rights for small farmers, in the face of increasing pressure from investors. A new website letstalklandtanzania.com/s/ has also been launched today.

In Kiharaka, farming families such as Hadija's (photo) are finding it increasingly difficult to get land. Wealthy investors from the nearby city of Dar es Salaam have bought up much of the village's land - some to build country homes, some speculating and buying up land cheaply in the expectation that as the city grows the land prices here will rise. Most of this land is so far not being used. Another nearby village has lost much of their land to a newly created Export Trading Zone.

Unable to find or afford land in their own village, Hadija's husband has gone to find land in another region hundreds of kilometres away, leaving her behind with the children.