groundnuts scheme

In Britain, unsuccessful attempt by Clement Attlee's Labour government 1946 to grow groundnuts (peanuts) in East Africa. The scheme was intended partly to improve Britain's balance of payments and partly to stimulate economic activity in the colonies in preparation for eventual independence. By 1949 the scheme proved an expensive failure, and the sheer improbability of the project, at huge cost to the taxpayer, made it a notorious fiasco.